<i- .\- 






\^' .S' 



^ ^^- "^"^ 



% 












^>/^^-% -^^ 



^^' ^ .-y y 



V ,^^ "^ 


















\^ 



c^ -n*- '^ 



'^. - '^^ <^^ 



* « I A \\ 







<^ 


•^■^ 




' 


4'- 


■/■ 


^A 




c '^ "^ 


'' 1) 






^^" % 



.r 






.^^^^ 



s*^' 

^^. 






'>. 












A-^^ 






.■?f' 



. V 



"■ ^^*^ 



.^■^ ''<^^ 



i^ARRATIVE 

OF A 

VOYAGE, 

IN 

HIS MAJESTY'S LATE SHIP ALCESTE, 

TO 

THE YELLOW SEA, 



ALONG THE 



COAST OF COREA, 



AND THROUGH ITS 



XUMEROUS HITHERTO UNDISCOVERED ISLANDS, 



ISLAJ^B OF LEWCHEW; 



WITH AN ACCOUNT OF HER 



SHIP>VRECK IN THE STRAITS OF GASPAR-. 



BY JOHN M'LEOD, SURGEON 

OF THE ALCESTE. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

PUBLISHED BY M. CAREY AND SON, 

Corner ofChesnut and Fourth streets, 

1818. 







4 

\ 









1 









i*" 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The author of the following pages has attempted to 
narrate (in the best and shortest way he can) the occur- 
rences of a voyage rendered remarkable by a combination 
of extraordinary events, and the circumstance of a com- 
munication with an interesting people, with whom, for the 
first time, Europeans have had any intercourse ; and he 
has ventured a few occasional remarks, precisely as they 
arose m his mind on the spot, and which more mature re- 
flection has not induced him to alter. He is aware that his 
thoughts, as well as his mode of expressing them, may be 
liable to comment ; but he hopes that those who are mighty 
in criticism will be merciful in censure, and not visit with 
asperity that which is humble in pretension. 



VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 



TO 



CHINA. 



The British government, on the representation 
of the court of directors of the East India Com- 
pany, respecting the trade with China, having de- 
cided, with the view of relieving that branch of 
its commerce from the increasing vexatious impo- 
sitions of the local authorities of Canton, on the 
measure of sending an embassy to the court of 
Pekin ; as on a former occasion of a similar kind, 
a distinguished nobleman had been selected to fill 
the situation of embassador extraordinary from 
the king of Great Britain to the emperor of China, 
who carried out with him a numerous suite com- 
posed of gentlemen well skilled in every branch of 
natural knowledge, with many curious and costly 
presents ; so it was now determined to leave no- 
thing short that could contribute to the splendour 
and respectability of the present embassy. The 

B 



2 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

right hoii. lord Amherst (who had already filled 
the high situation of embassador to the court of 
Sicily) was appointed to conduct this difficult and 
delicate mission. Mr. Henry Ellis (formerly em- 
ployed in a successful negociation with the king of 
Persia) was named secretary of embassy, with dor- 
mant powers to act as minister plenipotentiary, 
should any accident to the embassador render diat 
circumstance necessary. The hon. JefFery Am- 
herst, as page ; Mr. Hayne, as private secretary ; 
Mr. Abel, as surgeon and naturalist ; the rev. John 
Griffiths, as chaplain ; Mr. Havell, as artist ; and 
Dr. Lynn, with Mr. Maurige, Mr. Poole, and 
some others to fill the respective departments, con- 
stituted the suite of his excellency*. 

Many valuable presents, supplied, as on the for- 
mer occasion, by the East India Company, for the 
emperor and his ministers, consisting of specimens 
of our improved manufactures, made by the first 
liands, were also prepared. The command of the 
naval part of the expedition was intrusted to cap- 
tain Murray Maxwell ; and the Alceste, a frigate 
of forty-six guns, was fitted up for the reception of 
the embassador and suite. His majesty's brig Lyra, 

* Lieut. Cooke, of the royal marines, was also attached 
to the embassy, on its landing in China, the guard being 
selected from that corps. Messrs. Abbot, Martin, and 
Somerset, were likewise added to it at this period. 



TO CHINA. 3 

commanded by captain Basil Hall, and the General 
Hewitt, Indiaman, by captain Campbell, accompa- 
nied the Alceste, the latter carrying out the pre- 
sents. 

On the 9th of February, 1816, the ships sailed 
from Spithead, and soon cleared the Channel, with 
a favourable breeze, which continued with us to 
Madeira, where we arrived on the 18th. In Fun- 
chal road we found the Phaeton, having sir Hud- 
son and lady Lowe, with their suite on board, in 
their way to St. Helena ; and the Niger, with Mr. 
Bagot, on his mission to America. Our stay here 
was only twelve hours, and, in the evening, we 
pursued our course to the south-westward. The 
weather becoming hourly warmer, our people, who 
had been badly clothed, and had suffered a good 
deal from the severity of the cold in fitting out the 
ship, now began to thaw a little : things were be- 
ginning to find their proper places in the ship ; and 
those unaccustomed to the rolling motion had, by 
this time, acquired their sea-legs. On the 4th 
March, in the evening, at the moment of crossing 
the equinoctial line, the voice of some one, as from 
the sea, announced himself as Neptune's eldest son, 
and, after putting the usual interrogatories, added, 
that his father being a little indisposed, and rather 
squeamish about exposing himself to the night air, 
had deferred his visit until the morning, when he 
would personally call on board to inspect the stran- 



4l VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

gers who were now entering his dominions. The 
son of Neptune seemed now to sink again into the 
deep. In the morning, his godship, agreeably to 
promise, appeared, seated in his car (a gun-carriage), 
with his trident and other insignia, attended by 
Amphitrite, and all his usual train of inferior dei- 
ties. He was received by a strange-looking guard 
of his own, the band striking up " Rule Britannia /" 
After paying his respects to the embassador, the 
captain, and the rest, the novices, of whom there 
were not a few, were forthwith shaved, according 
to a practice immemorial, with a rusty iron hoop, 
full of notches ; and the lather being washed off, 
by playing the fire-engine in their faces, they were 
then wiped dry with a dirty swab. Much mirth 
and good humour prevailed ; and a double allow- 
ance of grog finished the ceremony. We experi- 
enced none of the calms usual near the line, and 
nothing of moment occurred until we reached the 
lat. 20° 4' north, long. 31° 52' west, on the 16th 
March, when the Lyra and Hewitt were directed 
to make the best of their way to the Cape of Good 
Hope, whilst the Alceste proceeded to the capital 
of the Brazils, where we arrived on the 21st of that 
month. 

All the bold, as well as beautiful, features of na- 
ture, have conjoined to enrich the scenery of Rio 
Janeiro. The luxuriant descriptions of former 
travellers are by no means exaggerated, for it would 



TO CHINA. 5 

indeed be difficult to exceed the truth in portray- 
ing the sublimity and grandeur of such a scene as 
presents itself on entering the harbour. The nu- 
merous islets appearing on this extensive sheet of 
water, — its richly- wooded banks, rising like an am- 
phitheatre on either hand, studded with villages 
and country seats, — added to the distant view of 
lofty and picturesque mountains, — form, altogether, 
a very unusual and noble landscape. 

Tlie death of the queen, which happened the 
day previous to our arrival, at the good old age of 
eighty-two, had rather cast a gloom over the city 
of St. Sebastians. The batteries and ships fired 
five-minute guns during the whole day and night ; 
the Alceste, Indefatigable, and a Spanish frigate, 
following this example ; displaying also the usual 
exterior marks of grief, by hoisting the colours 
half-staff high, and topping the yards. The offi- 
cers also wore crape ; and, from a positive order 
being issued to all the inhabitants to go into mourn- 
ing (which none dared, under the severest penal- 
ties, disobey), the prices of all black articles felt a 
sudden and enormous increase. 

The government of the Brazils seems perfectly 
despotic ; and it is painful to see even Englishmen 
lose the natural freedom of their character under 
such dominion. Some, who from long residence 
had imbibed the feelings of the Portuguese, would, 
in answering any question relative to public affiiirs, 



6 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

look cautiously around, to see who was near them, 
and then whisper their reply. 

The prince (now the king), during the period 
her majesty lay in state, was shut up, according to 
their usage, not to be seen by any but his cham- 
berlain. 

Swarms of priests occupied every avenue to the 
palace, and hung in clusters on the staircases. St. 
Sebastians seems to be a soil, in which these mem- 
bers of the aiitos dafe still thrive well. The Bra- 
zils have lately been raised from the state of a mere 
colony to the dignity of a kingdom ; and the resi- 
dence of the court has conferred still more sub- 
stantial advantages on it, arising from the emigra- 
tion of the chief nobility from Portugal, and the 
transfer of their wealth to this country. 

Its commerce has of late years increased to a 
great degree, chiefly, however, under the direction 
of English houses. The return of the court to the 
mother country, it is thought, would be the signal 
of revolt ; for it is not probable the Brazils would 
long remain in their present fettered state, whilst 
colonies in all directions around them are freeing 
themselves from the oppression of the mother coun- 
try. The want of the usual public attentions of 
saluting the flag of a foreign power might have been 
accounted for under the present circumstances of 
the court ; but it was singular (considering, more 
particularly, our late relations with Portugal) that 



TO CHINA, 7 

a house for the accommodation of the embassador 
and suite, during their short stay, and which had 
been granted to the former embassy, should have 
been refused in the present instance. The hospi- 
tahty, however, of Mr. Chamberlayne, the British 
minister here, amply supplied this deficiency. AU 
places of public amusement were of course shut ; 
and the only spectacle^ during our stay, was the fu- 
neral of the queen, which took place by torch- 
light ; all the military that could be collected, both 
horse and foot, lining the streets (which were illu- 
minated) from the palace to the convent of Ajuda. 
The herse and state- coaches were drawn up at the 
grand.entrance, covered with black cloth, and near 
them the chief mourners, who were eight of the 
nobles, on horseback. Their dress was the ancient 
Portuguese costume of mourning. Each had a 
large broad-brimmed hat, rather slouching down 
upon the shoulders ; a long black cloak, or robe, 
with the star of some order affixed to it ; convey- 
ing to the mind of an English spectator the whim- 
sical combination of a coal-heaver, a priest, and a 
knight. The king, accompanied by the two elder 
princes, attended the coffin to the principal porch, 
and saw it deposited in the hearse, when the whole 
cavalcade drove oif, and the body was interred in 
the convent, with the usual religious ceremonies. 
The royal family next day appeared at the balco- 
nies of the palace ; on which occasion it is usual for 



B VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

the Portuguese to stand uncovered in the square 
opposite ; and, if any of the royal carriages are met 
on the road, the passengers on horseback must dis- 
mount, and even kneel. 

Neither of their Portuguese majesties can them- 
selves be considered as regular beauties ; but the 
princesses are good figures, and certainly, upon 
the whole, handsome women. Don Pedro, their 
eldest son, promises to be a man of some spirit. 
Much indolence seems to exist among the inha- 
bitants, and they are said still to possess their cha- 
racteristic contempt of all reading ; so that a pub- 
lisher of books in the Brazils would probably earn 
but a lean livelihood. This country produces all 
the various fruits of the warmer climates ; such as 
pine-apples, oranges, limes, mangoes, guavas, me- 
lons, bananas, &c. : the tea-shrub still continues to 
be an article of growth, under the direction of some 
Chinese accustomed to manage it ; and it is to be 
hoped they may succeed in extending and im- 
proving its cultivation. The slave-trade still exists 
to its fullest extent ; and this class of the popu- 
lation, however useful they may be, are certainly 
not ornamental ; being the ugliest race of negroes 
that can be collected from the African coast — Ga- 
boons, Congos, and Angolas. Our West -India 
islands having been generally supplied with Fan- 
tees, from the Gold Coast, with Eyeos, and Ashan- 
tees, who are a much finer-looking people; this 



TO CHINA. 9 

circumstance, added perhaps to their improved con- 
dition, their better f lothing, and general treatment, 
gives a slave of Jamaica a far less degraded appear- 
ance than one in this country. Yet, though the 
situation of the former is much ameliorated (and 
undoubtedly superior to his native state in Africa), 
it is unfortunate that the first European settlers of 
colonies, had not, instead of hunting down and 
oppressing the natives, trained them to habits of 
industry ; when the term slavery^ so revolting to 
humanity even under the most favourable circum- 
stances, so contrary to reason and natural right, 
need never have been known. Our East-India 
possessions, and late occupation of Java, sufficient- 
ly demonstrate the practicability of this system. 

They do Buonaparte, here, the honour of being 
very much afraid of him ; and keep a bright eye 
to windward, lest he should break adrift from St. 
Helena, and come down upon them before the 
wind. This silly appearance of fear is something 
like the weakness of ordering his name never to 
be mentioned, than which, perhaps, nothing tends 
more to keep up his consequence. 

This part of the Brazils is naturally hot during 
the months of December, January, and February ; 
but (more especially as the southern are found to 
be comparatively colder than corresponding north- 
ern latitudes) it enjoys, during our summer, a sort 

C 



iO VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

of tropical winter, and is not considered an un- 
healthy climate. 

The town of St. Sebastians, without any public 
edifice worthy of notice, is regularly built, and, 
from the late influx of inhabitants, is daily extend- 
ing its limits. Although this country produces 
plenty of beef, yet, from want of care and manage- 
ment, it is such as would be considered carrion in 
England ; and in few parts of the world is there 
less accommodation for travellers, there being only 
some casas^ or inns, of the most wretched de- 
scription. 

The Brazils display an inexhaustible field for 
the researches of the naturalist, for no where else 
can the objects of his inquiry be more varied or 
multiplied. The state of society here is repre- 
sented, by those whose long residence and close 
intercourse afford them the means of judging, as 
extremely demoralized. The men, in their ex- 
terior appearance, are a squalid, hysterical, grim- 
looking set ; but the ladies, though generally little, 
and dark- coloured, are not deficient in beauty or 
expression of countenance; they want, however, 
that elegance of gait and graceful walk, peculiar to 
the Spaniards. They are said to be more atten- 
tive to the external forms of decorum than to the 
essential practice of modesty ; but this, if true, 
may " depend," as was suggested by an elegant 



TO CHINA. 11 

writer of the last embassy, " on the example of 
the men ;" for it would scarcely be reasonable to 
expect the perfection of female morals, where 
every manly virtue is unknown. At least three- 
fourths of the world are in a state of barbarism, 
where women have no character at all ; being either 
immured in seraglios, or the mere slaves and play- 
things of their savage lords ; but in that portion 
of it, which has a claim to civilization, where they 
are allowed to have minds, and assume their just 
rank, the slightest glance will shew, that among 
those nations where honour, intelligence, and worth, 
are held in most esteem by the one sex, they are 
uniformly rewarded by corresponding good quali- 
ties in the other. 

The ship having recruited her supply of very 
excellent water*, and other matters settled, we 
took our leave of the American shore on the 31st 
of March, steering south-easterly until we got from 
36° to 39° south, where we found the prevailing 
westerly winds. Keeping in the usual track for 
ships crossing the Southern Atlantic, we passed the 
islands of Tristan d'Acunha, about fifty miles to 
the northward of them. The wind conthming 

* Captain Cook complained of the water here being very- 
bad. — At that time, perhaps, the aqueduct was not so ex- 
tensively covered, and secured from the admission of im- 
puriiies, as at present. 



1^ VOYAGE OF H. M. 9. ALCESTE 

favourable, we saw the Table Mountain on the 
18th of Aprii, and anchored on the same day in the 
bay. We arrived at a gay time, in the middle of 
horse-racing and balls. An India fleet touched here, 
homeward bound, one of the ships having on board 
the countess of Loudon and family, on the passage 
to England. Cape Town has now become almost 
an English place, and is too well known to require 
any description here. 

As strangers, on first landing here, we were for- 
cibly struck by the remarkable difference of com- 
plexion in the female part of the society, compared 
with the brunettes we had just left at Rio Janeiro ; 
and an Englishman is probably the more inclined 
to esteem the beauty of the Cape ladies, from its 
great resemblance to that which he is accustomed 
to admire at home. It is hinted, however, that 
this resemblance exists chiefly during youth, and 
that, in their maturer years, they are apt (from se- 
dentary habits and want of exercise) to acquire a 
peculiar Hottentctish obesity. But this, perhaps, 
is only said by ill-natured people. 

The ship having gone round to Simon's Bay, 
and the necessary refitment being completed, his 
lordship embarked at this place, with the usual 
marks of attention, on the 6th of May, and we pro- 
ceeded on our voyage. From 38*^ to 40° south, 
we found our expected winds ; but, as winter was 
far advanced in this hemisphere (latter end of May, 



TO CHINA. 13 

and beginning of June), the weather was cold, 
bleak, and boisterous, with a heavy sea. On the 
24th May we made the islands of St. Paul and 
Amsterdam. Smoke was seen, as we approached, 
issuing from the crevices of the latter. It is here 
where the hot springs so nearly adjoin to the great 
salt water basin, as to afford the singular exhibition 
of catching fish in the latter, and boiling them in 
die former, without taking them oif the hook, and 
within reach of the rod. The state of the weather, 
which was very rough, and the time of the evenirg, 
did not allow us to verify this fact, but there is no 
doubt of its truth. An immense crater (now ap- 
parently converted into a sort of harbour, the sea 
having flowed into it) appears on the eastern side 
of the island. 

Having got sufficiently to the eastward for the 
purpose of fetching Java with the usual tropical 
winds, we began to hawl to the northward and 
eastward, the weather of course becoming daily 
warmer ; and, on the 8th June, we saw Java Head, 
and anchored next day in Anjeri road, where we 
found the Lyra at anchor, and saw the Hewitt oft" 
Cape Nicholas, on her way to Batavia, they having 
only arrived two days before us*. This passage 

* The superior sailing of the frigate enabled us to touch 
at Rio Janeiro, without in any way delaying the general pas- 
sage ; as, notwithstanding this, she nearly overtook her con- 



i4i VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

was extraordinary for its rapidity, for in ninety-two 
days, under sail, the ship had traversed about 
fourteen thousand miles, and visited every quarter 
of the globe. 

After staying a day or two at the village of An- 
jeri (where we were amused with the ceremony of 
a Javanese wedding), colonel Yule, the resident of 
the Bantam district, accompanied by Mr. M'Gre- 
gor, waited on the embassador to pay their re- 
spects ; and having provided the necessary accom- 
modation for his lordship and suite to proceed over 
land to Batavia, they all set out on their journey 
thither. During our short stay here, the king, or 
sultan, of Bantam, died ; and his uncle (the nearest 
heir to the sovereignty) refused to accept the title, 
preferring to live in humble retirement. The Al- 
ceste, having completed her water, sailed also for 
Batavia, as she had brought out duplicate des- 
patches for the evacuation of the island of Java. 
The Lyra, in the mean time, had been sent on to 
China, with a communication from lord Amherst 
to Sir G. Staunton. 

On the 21st June we sailed from Batavia, with 
the general Hewitt ; saw the island of Lucepara on 
the 23d, and entered the straits of Banca. Our 

sorts at the Cape. The same was the case here, though she 
remained ten days behind, being able to afford them, in such 
a run, a start of 1000, or 1500 miles. 



TO CHINA. 15 

voyage up the China sea presented nothing unu- 
sual. On the 9th of July we met his majesty's 
ship Orlando, and received intelligence of the 
motions of our coadjutors at Macao. We joined 
them at anchor near the Grand Lemma on the 
following day, and found along with the Lyra, 
the Discovery, and Investigator, two surveying- 
ships belonging to the company, having on board 
Sir G. Staunton, and some other gentlemen* be- 
longing to the factory, whose knowledge of the 
Chinese language rendered them necessary as inter- 
preters. 

The apparent reason of choosing this rendez- 
vous, was to be free from the impertinence of the 
Canton official people, whose business it naturally 
was to thwart the measures, and throw every pos- 
sible impediment in the way of, the embassy. Cir- 
cumstances occasioning the delay of a day or two, 
the ships passed on to an anchorage among the 
Hong Kong islands ; where the Anjeri water, not 
being deemed good, was changed for that which 
fell from the rocks, and was certainly uncontami- 
nated by any vegetable matter, for few places present 
a more barren aspect than these islands. They are 
also called the Ladrones, from being the haunts of 
pirates ; and for such a purpose their situation is ex- 



* Messrs. Morrison, Manning, Toone, Davis, and Pear- 
son. 



1§ VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

tremely well adapted. Here a message ari'ived, 
stating the emperor's pleasure that the embassy 
should be received as in the former case ; and that 
the necessary orders had been sent to the ports of 
the Eastern and Yellow Seas for that purpose. 

On the 13th July the squadron (four ships and 
the brig) sailed ; and, coasting along the provinces 
of Quang-tung and Fokien, passed through the 
straits of Formosa, and entered the Tung Hai, or 
Eastern Sea. The breeze altered its direction 
occasionally, but was always favourable ; and, 
passing out of sight of the Chusan islands, we saw 
the land to the eastward, which we then conceived 
to be the south-west point of Corea. On the 24th 
we made Staunton's island, and capes Gower and 
Macartney, on the south-east part of the Shan- 
tong promontory ; and, the next day, rounding 
close the north-east point, we entered the gulph of 
Pe-tche-lee. The country here had an extremely 
rugged and sterile look. On the 26th we passed 
through the Mee-a-tau islands, and steered for the 
mouth of the White (or North) River*, despatch- 
ing the Lyra a-head, to announce the approach of 
the squadron. 

An address was now publicly read by lord Am- 
herst, to all the individuals who were to be attend- 

* It is doubtful whether Pei means white or north j most 
probably the latter. 



TO CHINA. 17 

ants on the embassy, touching the great necessity 
of maintaining the strictest regularity and pro- 
priety of conduct in their intercourse \\ith the 
Chinese, so as to avoid every cause of offence or 
disagreement ; and laying down general regulations 
for their conduct in all respects. 

We anchored, on the 28th*, not many miles 
distant from the mouth of the river ; but the land 
is here so very low, that the mast-heads of the 
junks in the river, and the tops of the houses only 
of the village of Ta-coo, were visible from the 
ship. It would appear that the ships had entirely 
outstripped the expectations of the Chinese ; for 
they had no idea of seeing them so soon, or that 
they should not have heard of them in their pas- 
sage up. Such rapidity of movement never enter- 
ed into their conceptions; for they, in fact, had 
scarce heard of them at one end of their empire, 
when they found them at the other. 

The viceroy of this province (Pe-tche-lee) had 
been for some offence dismissed from his office;, 
and his successor having not yet left Pekin, it 
was not until the 4th Aug, that two duly-autho- 
rized mandarins of rank (Chang and Yin) came on 

* During our passage up the Yellow Sea the weather was 
remarkably serene and fine, and we experienced none of the 
fogs which usually hang over the shallower parts of the 
©cean. 

D 



18 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

board to pay their respects to the embassador, and 
to give the necessary directions for the disembarka- 
tion of the presents. To those who had seen, for 
the first time, the Chinese costume, these manda- 
rins had a very strange appearance. — On a back 
view, their short jacket, or gown, with their crape 
petticoats, gave them the look of bulky old women; 
but, in confronting themj their clumsy boots and 
" beards forbade the interpretation." The fisher- 
men in this vicinity (almost within a hundred 
miles of the capital) were literally naked, — even 
without a fig-leaf. This sort of indecency we were 
little prepared to meet, amongst a people who af- 
fect to be so outrageously decorous as to discou- 
rage the art of sculpture, because it displays too 
distinctly the shape and lineaments of the human 
body. 

Chang was a civil, Yin a military, mandarin; 
and they had, as usual, the title of ta-zhin (or great 
man) added to their names. They were saluted 
on approaching the ship with seven guns each, 
and received with a guard. Every body was in 
I full dress ; and it could not be said of this, as of 
I the last embassy, that there was any want of splen- 
dour in this respect. After a conference, in some 
degree ceremonious, and partly for arranging future 
proceedings, they partook of a banquet in the cap- 
tain's cabin, and then returned to the shore. Quang, 
the chin-chae, imperial commissioner, or legate 



TO CHINA. 19 

(as he has been variously termed), holding a supe- 
rior rank to either of the others*, being ready to 
receive the embassador on shore, his lordship and 
the gentlemen of the embassy took their leave of 
us for a while, landing in great state on the 9th of 
August; the squadron being dressed in colours, 
the standard flying, the yards manned, and a salute 
of 19 guns fired from each ship. They proceeded 
into the river attended by a number of Chinese 
junks, and by our boats in regular order. During 
the time we remained at this place, presents of 
bullocks, vegetables, rice, tea, and other refresh- 
ments were, according to usage, sent off to the 
ships, but by no means in great abundance. Seve- 
ral of the bullocks were brought along-side dead, 
having been drowned in the bottom of the boats, 
or died otherwise in their passage off. This, how- 
ever, was not meant as disrespect or incivility, for 
they make no distinction themselves between an 
animal that is killed by the butcher, and one which 
dies naturally ; and in this way they eat dogs, cats, 
rats, and, in fact, all manner of carrion and ver. 
min. 



* The person holding such an office as this, under the 
great seal, obtains a kind of temporary rank, entitling him, 
for the time, to take precedence even of the viceroy of a 
province, although he may have an inferior button or ball 
on his cap, and be a mandarin of lower order in the state. 



so VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

In this respect, therefore, they made no strangers 
of us, for they gave us their own family fare. 

It was now determined, by the senior officer, 
that the Lyra, attended by the Investigator, should 
take a southerly direction in the gulf, whilst the 
Alceste and Discovery were to proceed to the 
north, a certain rendezvous being pointed out for 
our meeting again, to which the General Hewitt 
was also directed. 

On the Ilth we weighed, and stood to the north- 
eastward; the Discovery in company: the Lvra 
and Investigator to the southward. On the 13th 
saw the Sha-loo-poo-tien islands, extending from 
north-west b}' north to west by south, distant about 
five leagues. We coasted along the western shore 
of the gulf of Lea-tong, hitherto unexplored by 
any European ship ; and found the land, as we ad- 
vanced, became more and more mountainous. 
About noon, on the 14th, in latitude 39° 29' N. 
longitude 120° 6' E , the great wall of China opened 
to the view, bearing north-west by west, its nearest 
and lowest point being then distant about six or 
seven leagues; but we approached it closer in the 
afternoon. 

Rising from the sea, this immense barrier passed 
over the first or lowest hill, and, mounting the 
second, was seen stretching to the right, in our 
point of view, obliquely towards its summit : then, 
on the third and still higher land, it inclined to the 



TO CHINA. 21 

left, making an angle with the last range ; and, ulti- 
mately ascending the highest and most distant 
mountain, it was there lost*. The opportunity 
of surveying this extraordinary structure, which, 
for more than twenty ages, has been deemed one of 
the greatest wonders of the world, afforded, more 
especially in this unexpected way, from the deck 
of a British man of war, the most pleasing sensa- 
tions. Whether it is considered (as it is by some) 
a mighty effort of human industry, or (as by others) 
a monument of laborious folly, still it is an ama- 
zing object, not only from its immense extent, but 
on account of its great antiquity ; and, from being 
so seldom visible to an European eye, to have be- 
held it, even at this distance, was a high gratifica- 
tion of curiosity. Beyond the wall is a remarka- 
ble head-land, very much resembling Cape Sicie, 
a notorious place, near Toulon. The wdnd head- 
ing us here, we stood across, about sun-set, toward 
the coast of Chinese Tartary ; and on the 15 th, in 



* It extends for about fifteen hundred miles, and is car- 
ried equally over mountains and rivers. — " It is said not to 
be more than five-and-twenty feet high, flanked with towers 
at short distances, but of sufficient breadth for several horse- 
men to travel easily abreast. Report says, that one-third of 
the men in China, capable of labour, were employed in its 
construction, and tliat it was finished in the space of five 
years.'' 



SS VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

the evening, anchored in a bay* sheltered by winds 
from the north-west to south, but open to the 
southward and westward, lat. 39° 33' N., long. 
121° 19' E. We found here a cascade of water 
gushing from the rock, which was excellent. 

The natives, who most probably had never seen 
any ships of our class before, crowded down next 
morning on the beach, but shewed no inclination 
to come on board. Indeed the people here seem- 
ed to be less amphibious than those generally 
found on sea- coasts ; few fishing or other boats 
were to be seen, although a very large and fine 
harbour, for vessels of twelve or fifteen feet water, 
extended inland round a point from the head of 
the bay. 

The first officer who wandered up to the villa- 
ges, about two miles from the watering place, was 
nearly devoured by the curiosity of the inhabitants. 
Being seated beneath a tree, every part of his 
dress underwent the strictest scrutiny, from the 
shirt-frill to the shoes ; but the anchor- buttons 
seemed most to attract attention, for they would 
refuse a dollar, and gladly accept a button, for any 
thing. The women here had, universally, small 
feet, all who were seen (and on the first morning 
every woman in the village made her appearance) 
being crippled. This we by no means expected 

* Named Ross Bay. 



TO CHINA. 23 

to have found so far on the Tartar side of the great 
wall. 

But these people are, in fact, completely Chi- 
nese ; the language, dress, and religion of that 
country evidently prevailing : and they appear to 
differ in no material respect from those we after- 
wards' saw in the province of Shan-tong, except 
that they were less rude and uncivil. No public 
officer, or man of any rank, made his appearance to 
inquire into the motives of our arrival. They were 
remarkably neat in their houses and gardens ; and 
there was an air of comfort about their villages, not 
always to be found in the more civilized parts of 
Europe. The face of the country is mountainous, 
and extremely denuded of wood ; not a tree being 
visible, except in the immediate vicinity of their 
dwellings. The hills had the appearance of sheep- 
feeding downs in England ; and the soil, as far as 
we could penetrate, was excellent, and a good deal 
cultivated ; the holcus sorghum appearing a promi- 
nent object. 

Many deep fissures or gulleys were observed on 
the sides of the mountains, occasioned by the tor- 
rents from the melting snow in summer ; for, al- 
though this part of the country is in the same par- 
allel as the north of Italy or south of France, and 
was now (in August) very warm, yet the wintery 
season must be extremely cold, from the general 
situation and appeaiwice of the country, and the 



24 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

bleak winds blowing over the uncultivated wilds to 
the northward of it. The rocks here were com- 
posed of a very ponderous sort of stone, evidently- 
containing a great proportion of iron ; and some 
slate was observed. There must be some town of 
commercial importance situated at the head of the 
gulf, from the number of junks we saw passing up 
and down. Some matchlocks were noticed at this 
place, but they were merely in the hands of indi- 
viduals, as fowling-pieces ; for no military made 
their appearance. We were unable to procure a 
sil^ply of fresh beef ; — not from want of cattle ; 
but they could not comprehend the value of Spa- 
nish dollars, this coin of such universal circulation 
being melted down, the moment it gets into the 
hands of a Chinese of Canton. 

Having completed our water, we weighed on the 
19th, and steered along-shore to the southward. 
At four in the afternoon, we saw a considerable 
town, lying in a hollow between two red cliffs, the 
neighbourhood immediately around being rather 
fine, and better wooded than usual. It seem- 
ed a place of some trade, and a number of junks 
were lying at anchor in the roads. The narrow 
promontory which here extends into the Yellow 
Sea, and forms the eastern boundary of the gulf 
of Lea-tong, was, from its resemblance to a sabre, 
named the Regent's Sword : the south end of it is 
the extreme Tartar point, and was called Cape 



TO CHINA. S5 

Charlotte, in honour of her royal highness the prin- 
cess. 

Leopold's Isle lies a little to the north-west of 
this cape. 

The coast along this shore from our anchorage 
was not unlike that from Plymouth Sound to the 
Start. Next morning (20ih), steering southerly, 
we passed through a cluster of islands (nearly op- 
posite and not very far disftant from the Mee-a- 
taus), which were named the Company's Group. 
The space bet^veen them and Cape Charlotte, St. 
George's Channel ; that through which we hacf 
sailed, LeadenhaU-Passage ; Ried's Rock and 
Grant's Jslarid were names appropriated on this oc- 
casion. Soon after we saw the Mee-a-tau islands; 
and, in the afternoon, passed the city of Ten-cheu- 
foo, at which lord Macartney, in the last embassy, 
touched. It looks ver}' well from the sea, but the 
wall seems of much greater extent tlian is necessa- 
r}^ for the town. Stood on to the eastward, and en- 
teredj in the evening, the bay or harbour of Kin- 
san-seu or Zew-a-tau. The clear and accurate de- 
scription of it, by sir Erasmus Gower, enabled th6 
Alceste to proceed in without the least hesitation of 
difficulty. Here we found the General Hewitt. 
There are two towns on the peninsula, forming the 
north-west side of the harbour, and one On the op- 
posite shore. They have no fortifications here ; 
at least none deserving that name. Thegpeople ap- 

K 



S6 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

peared a gross and boorish set, and we enjoyed 
the happiness of being crowded with them from 
day-hght till dark, when they always went away 
without the least expression of thanks for civilities 
shewn them. We here noticed that all the females, 
high and low, had small feet, which is by no means 
the case in the southern provinces, especially about 
Canton. At the latter place, among the middling 
and lower classes, the feet are allowed to remain in 
their proper state, unless the girl promises to be 
handsome, in which case she is crippled, in order 
to give the finishing touch to her beauty, and with 
the view of preparing her for the mandarin market, 
where small feet bring a higher price, and she oc- 
casionally, also, obtains some interest or favour for 
her parents through the connexion. 

They walk, or rather totter along, like one shuf- 
fling on her heels only, without putting the fore 
part of the foot on the ground ; and in moving 
quick, they not unfrequently tumble down, when 
they must get up again the best way they can ; for 
Chinese gallantry was never observed to extend so 
far as to afford any help on such an occurrence. 
Some, more cautious, were seen to move about, 
supporting themselves by the walls of the houses. 
Girls, from early infancy to eight or nine years old, 
were carried about in arms, their feet being too 
tender, during the first years of this absurd and 
cruel operation, to enable them to bear their weight ; 



TO CHINA. 27 

the four smaller toes being turned down under the 
sole, the whole foot and ancle cramped, and the 
growth impeded by tight bandages, and a small 
shoe, which is generally again enclosed in a larger 
one. The pain and irritation excited by this hor- 
rid process, as well as the want of exercise, evident- 
ly injures their general health, for all the female 
children had a sickly pallid look. It would be as 
difficult to account for the origin of this barbarous 
practice, as that of squeezing the waists of Eng- 
lish women out of all natural shape by stays (an 
usage which has not long been laid aside) ; or of 
" treating men like mere musical instruments," and 
tuning them, as such, in Italy. 

On shore the people were inhospitably rude, 
and even the children were encouraged to be inso- 
lent, and to throw stones. One mandarin seized a 
basket of vearetables from the officers' steward, or- 
dering him and the interpreter (whom he also beat) 
into the boat, with a number of opprobrious epi- 
thets, such as " Foreign Devils ! Spies !" &:c. Our 
relation with the embassy tied our hands at this 
time. 

Finding no refreshment w^as to be obtained here, 
and being told, by some one in authority, that there 
was a greater probability, of getting cattle at ano- 
ther harbour, forty miles farther to the eastward, 
we prepared to proceed thither. 



S» VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

We had by this time been joined by the Lyra ; 
captain Hall having surveyed the western arid south- 
ern shores of the Gulf of Pe-che-lee, which were 
found to be in general low. One place, remarka- 
ble for its height over the adjoining land, had been 
named Mount Eilis. Here we parted for a time 
with our worthy friends of the General Hewitt, the 
companions of our voyage outward ; that ship pro- 
ceeding to Canton, to complete her ulterior ob- 
jects. On the 26th we weighed from Zeu-a-tau, 
and next morning arrived at Oie-aie-oie, a very ex- 
tensive and secure harbour, the Lyra sounding the 
passage in. On our entrance a number of manda- 
rins (or, as the seamen termed them, mad marines} 
came on board to pay their respects ; and an old 
turret on the face of a hill fired three popguns by 
way of salvite, turning out about a dozen and a half 
of soldiers, who looked a good deal like the stage- 
military m an old fashioned play. 

Their salute was returned by an equal number 
of guns from the ships. Here died Mr. Gawthrop, 
the master, aged forty-three years, (thirty-three of 
which he had been to sea,) after a severe illness 
contracted at the Cape of Good Hope. He had 
been distinguished as a good seaman and correct 
navigator ; his career in the navy had also been 
marked by his abilities as a surveyor of coasts and 
harbours ; and, although a man of blunt manners, 
his honesty was sterling. The ship's reckoning 



TO CHINA. 29 

had been kept, during his confinement, by Mr. 
Taylor, the chaplain. 

We buried him at sea, near the mouth of the 
harbour, with military honours ; it not being con- 
sidered right to inter him among a set of men who 
would have disturbed the grave for the coffin or 
the clothes, and of whose thievish disposition we 
we had had the fullest example. We lost no time 
at this place, where nothing substantial was to 
be found*, but proceeded to sea on the 29th, 
standing to the eastward along the Shan-tong shore. 
On the 31st we saw the land bearing cast; but, 
the wind being light, anchored in forty-three 
fathoms. Towards morning we weighed, and the 
next day anchored again among a cluster of islands, 
lat. 37° 45' N., long. 124° 40' 30" E. on the coast 
of Corea. The natives here exhibited, by signs 
and gestures, the greatest aversion to the landing 
of a piirty from the ships, making cut-throat mo- 
tions by drawing their hands across their necks, 
and pushing the boats away from the beach ; but 
they offered no serious violence. These islands 
were named Sir James Hall's Group ; the main 
land, of considerable height, was in view, and not 
far distant. Weighed again, and, the wind being 
northerly, stood to the southward. On the 2d we 

* Here parted for Macao the Discovery and Investigator. 
They were towed up, and sailed down again. 



30 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

were out of sight of any land ; but, the wind chang- 
ing to the eastward, made sail southerly, and, on 
the 3d, passed a number of islands, with which, 
the sea was studded as far as the eye could reach 
from the mast-head ; and, on the 4th, stood into a 
fine bay formed by the main land to the northward 
and eastward, and sheltered in a great degree in 
other points by Helen's and other islands to the 
westward ; and anchored in six fathoms in front of 
a village, a larger town being observed at some 
distance. In the evening six or seven large boats 
came off to the Lyra (being nearest the shore), 
having on board a chief (most probably of this 
district), attended by a numerous retinue. There 
he met the commodore ; and, after partaking of 
some refreshment, proceeded, although it was now 
dark, on board the Alceste. He was saluted, on 
leaving the Lyra, with three guns, which was re- 
peated by the frigate. As he shoved off from the 
brig, one of his attendants, having in some way or 
other misbehaved, was bv his order extended on 
the deck of the boat, and received, in a summary 
way, about a dozen and a half of blows with a flat 
bamboo over the seat of honour ; and, as the cul- 
prit squalled, a number of his companions stand- 
ing round him joined in the howl, either in deri- 
sion, or to drown his noise. This ceremony finish- 
ed, a flourish of trumpets and other instruments 
announced his approach to the frigate. He was a 



TO CHINA. 31 

man apparently about seventy years of age, of a 
very venerable and majestic mien ; his hair and 
beard of a hoary whiteness. His dress was a light 
blue robe, with loose sleeves, and fastened round 
his middle by a buff- coloured leathern girdle. He 
had on his head an immense hat, not less than 
five or six feet round the brim, made of some 
substance resembling horse- hair varnished over. 
The cavity to receive the head being fixed under 
the brim, that which rose above it, as in European 
hats, was not larger than a common tumbler. He 
wore a kind of half-boots, very much peaked and 
turned up at the points; and in his hand he held 
a short black stick, twisted round with a silken 
cord, which seemed to be the badge of his office. 
Divested of his broad-brimmed hat, he would not 
upon the whole have made a bad representative of 
old king Lear. Of his attendants some were mili- 
tary, being distinguished by a short sword or ra- 
pier, the officers wearing peacocks' feathers in their 
hats (a distinction which also exists in China for 
men of merit) : and the rest were civilians. He 
was ushered into the cabin, where, in preference to 
chairs, he sat down upon one of the sofa cushions, 
placed upon deck. It appearing to be etiquette 
for the head to be covered, the whole party, con- 
sisting of captains Maxwell, Hall, and other offi- 
cers, conformed to this rule, and, squatting on the 
cabin-floor, with gold-laced cocked hats on, amid 



^ VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

the strange costume of the Coreans, looked Hke a 
party of masquers. 

Much edifying conversation was no doubt lost 
on this occasion ; for much was said, but unfor- 
tunately not one word was understood, the Chinese 
interpreter we had on board not being able to 
write his own language ; and some of the Coreans 
could write, although they could not speak, at 
least, that dialect which he comprehended. The 
old gentleman, however, displayed, by signs, his 
satisfaction at the mode of his reception ; and, after 
partaking of some liqueurs and sweetmeats, took 
his departure late in the evening from the ship, 
when he was again saluted, his band striking up 
one of their martial airs. 

During the night several boats were anchored 
near the Lyra, apparently to watch her motions; 
and early in the morning the same chief, accom- 
panied by a still greater retinue, was seen embark- 
ing at the nearest village, and soon after he visited 
the Lyra, where he breakfasted. He had in his 
train some secretaries (or men of letters), who em- 
ployed themselves in noting down every thing re- 
lative to the ships which could be acquired by 
signs : the complement of men was described by 
pointing to them, and then, holding up ten fingers 
a certain number of times ; they counted the guns, 
examined the muskets, measured tlie decks, &c. 
Sec, A shQt was fired, by express wish, from one 



TO CHINA, 33 

of the carronades ; and the distance it went, but 
particularly its recochetting along the surface of the 
water, seemed to strike them with astonishment. 
After breakfast, a small party of the officers (cap- 
tains Maxwell, Hall, Messrs. Clifford, Law, and 
M'Leod) got into the boats with the view of land- 
ing at the village ; and the old chief, thinking they 
were going to the frigate, accompanied them, his 
own boats attending. But no sooner did he per- 
ceive the course directed to the shore than his 
countenance fell, and he seemed altogether in a 
state of great perturbation, making signs that he 
wished to go to the Alceste, and shaking his head 
when they pointed to the town. 

Having reached the beach, the party landed, and 
were immediately surrounded by a concourse of 
people. The old chieftain hung his head, and 
clasped his hands in mournful silence ; at last, 
bursting into a fit of crying, he was supported, 
sobbing all the way, to a little distance, where he 
sat down upon a stone, looking back at the officers 
with the most melancholy aspect. His feelings 
appeared to be those of a man who imagined some 
great calamity had befallen his country in the 
arrival of strange people ; and that he was the un- 
happy being in whose government this misfortune 
had occurred. 

The natives, who had in the mean time been 
driven by their soldiers to a respectful distance, 

F 



34 VOVAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE . 

Stood gazing in astonishment alternately at their 
afflicted chief and at our party. 

Captain Maxwell, seeing what distress it occa- 
sioned him, would permit no' advance, and, beckon- 
ing to him to come back, he arose, and slowly re- 
turned. 

It was explained as well as could be done that 
no injury was intended, and that we were friends. 
He pointed to the sun ; and. describing its revolv- 
ing course four times, he drew his hand across his 
throat, and, dropping his chin upon his breast, 
shut his eyes, as if dead ; intimating that in four 
days (probably the period in which an answer ^ 
could arrive from Kin-ki~tao, the capital, for he 
also pointed to the interior) he would lose his 
head. One of his secretaries, or legal advisers 
(an amazing long-winded man), squatted on the 
top of a large stone, now made a harangue of con- 
siderable length, the purport of which was evi- 
dently against the advance of the strangers. Signs 
were made for something to eat and drink (think- 
ing hospitality might induce them to invite us 
into their houses) ; but messengers were instantly 
despatched to the village, who brought down littie 
tables, with mats to sit on, and some refreshments : 
this, however, not being the object, they were not 
accepted, making them understand that it was un- 
becoming to offer them in that unsheltered man- 
ner, on the open beach ; and, by way of a hint that 



TO CHINA. 36 

this was not our mode of treating strangers, invited 
them to return to the frigate, where they should 
dine handsomely, and meet with every respect. 
The old man, who had observed attentively, and 
seemed perfectly to comprehend the meaning of 
the signs, answered by going through the motions 
of eating and drinking with much appearance of 
liveliness and satisfoction, patting his stomach 
afterwards, to say all was very fine ; then, looking 
grave, he di'ew his hand across his neck, and shut 
his eyes ; as if to say, " What signifies your good 
dinners when I must lose my head ?'' 

Perceiving it was impossible to penetrate farther 
into the interior without violence, which we had 
neither the right nor the inclination to use, the par- 
ty re-embarked, affecting to be much hurt at the 
treatment they had received. 

The old gentleman followed on board the AI- 
ceste, seemingly much dejected, and looking as if 
ashamed that he could not pay more attention. 
Wandering about the decks, attempting to con- 
verse, by signs, with every one he met, he took a 
piece of paper from a gentleman who was sitting at 
his desk, and wrote some characters upon it, which 
he seemed to require an answer to, but of course 
none could be given. Tlie paper was retained ; 
and, being shewn some months afterwards to Mr. 
Bannerman, at Canton, turned out to be, " I don't 
know who ye are; wliat business have ye here?" 



36 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

It was pretty evident, however, that he was acting 
from orders which he dared not trifle with, rather 
than from any inhospitable feeling in his own na- 
ture. 

He received a Bible, which captain Maxwell (to 
whom he seemed very thankful for not insisting 
upon going into the town) presented him with, and 
carried it on shore with much care, most likely 
supposing it to be some official communication. 

Basil's Bay (which this place was named) lies in 
lat. 36° 9' N., long. 126° 32' E., being, in sea- 
phrase, about 120 miles high and dry up the coun- 
try, according to the existing charts. 

This afternoon (5th) got under weigh, and stood 
to the southward, through innumerable islands, 
which were all high, rising like mountains out of 
the sea. None of them seemed of great extent, 
few appearing longer than three or four miles, and, 
as far as we could see, in some degree cultivated, 
the inhabitants generally crowding to the top of 
the highest eminence, where they remained hud- 
dled together, and gazing until the ships were 
passed. 

On the 8th, anchored in lat. 34° 26' N., and here 
we found that the land seen on coming up the 
Whang Hai or Yellow Sea, and which had been 
called Cape Amherst, was not the continent. It 
was now named Alceste Island ; and another range, 
about twenty in number, running north and south, 



TO CHINA. 37 

rather within it, but outside the Corean Archipela- 
go, was called the Amherst Isles. This morning, 
after sounding our way in, came to an anchor in a 
most excellent harbour, named Murray's Sound; 
the two islands, which principally form it, Sham- 
rock and Thistle. 

Here a number of observations were taken, and 
surveys made, to ascertain the exact geographical 
position of the land, and tlie qualities of the an- 
chorage ; and distinguishing names were of course 
given to remarkable spots, which might serve on 
future occasions as leading marks. From the top 
of Montreal, one of the highest, 135 other islands 
were dislincdy counted ; the main land, which 
seemed very lofty, was seen ranging from north- 
east to east-south-east, distant about forty miles. 
From Murray's Sound, Craig Harriet, a very pecu- 
liar rock, rising in sugar-loaf form from the sea, 
bears south 39°, west five miles. Another rock 
(Huntly Lodge), situate on an island, south 40° 
east, resembles a church with a square tower. 
Windsor Castle, north 40° 50' east. The direc- 
tion of the sound itself north north-east half east, 
and south south-west half west ; it is a very secure 
anchorage, with excellent holding ground. The 
intervening spaces between the multitude of isles, 
generally from one to two, or three, and even four 
miles across, are all (at least as far as the boats ex- 
amined) close harbours, and capable of containing. 



38 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

in security, all the navies of the world. They 
form, in fact, an almost endless chain of harbours, 
communicating with each other. The rise and fall 
of tide is here considerable, but the setting of the 
currents among such a multitude of isles must, of 
course, be extremely various. They appear to be 
all inhabited, and therefore must possess fresh 
water. On first landing on Thistle Island, the 
women fled, with their infant children, over the 
hill, to a place which we named Eagle Point (from 
a large eagle being perched on the precipice as we 
came in), and hid themselves in recesses among 
the rocks ; whilst the men, in a body, but unarmed, 
waved and hallooed to us not to advance, making 
the usual signal with their hands across the throat. 
When they found, however, by repeated visits, that 
no hostility was intended, and that we were rather 
inclined to give than to take from them, they be- 
came a little more tame, would crowd round the 
officers to see them fire at a mark, bring them 
water to drink, and offer them part of their humble 
fare to eat ; but all this they seemed to do in a 
perfect spirit of independence, and not from fear. 
Then suddenly, as if recollecting they were acting 
contrary to orders in holding any correspondence 
whatever with strangers, they would lay hold of 
some of the gentlemen by the shoulders, and push 
theih away, pointing to the ship ; and this conduct 
was uniform wherever we touched. We observed 



^ 




TO CHINA, 39 

no fire-arms among them, but some who came on 
board the Alceste discovered considerable acquaint- 
ance with the sword exercise. They cuhivate as 
much grain as they want for their own consump- 
tion ; they feed cattle (at least for domestic pur- 
poses); and, as may naturally be supposed, from 
their peculiar and insular situation, they subsist a 
good deal by fishing. Of their government, gene- 
ral manners, and customs, it would be impossible 
to speak with any accuracy from so limited an in- 
tercourse as we had with them. 

China has very little communication with the 
barbarians of the westy and that is chiefly con- 
fined to a particular spot, the port of Canton ; 
Japan still less, and Corea none at all. A con- 
nexion, however, is kept up with China by two or 
three annual junks from the eastern coast. 

What little knowledge we possess of Corea is 
mostly derived from the Jesuits of China, who 
certainly were not infallible guides in all matters ; 
but in the geography, general literature, and de- 
lineation of manners and customs, when uncon- 
nected with their own superstitions, their labours 
are entitled to a distinguished place in the republic 
of letters, especially when the difficulties they had 
to struggle with are taken into consideration ; but 
here they were freed from every motive to deceive, 
and had only to tell the simple truth. 



40 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

Corea (or Kaoli) is tributary to the emperor of 
China, and sends him triennial embassadors ex- 
pressive of its homage. We saw enough, how- 
ever, to convince us that the sovereign of this 
country governs with most absolute sway ; and 
that, occasionally, he makes very free with the 
heads of his subjects. The allusion to this dan- 
ger could not have been so constant and uniform, 
in places so remote from each other, without some 
strong reason. 

The law against intercourse with foreigners ap- 
pears to be enforced with the utmost rigour*. At 
one of the islands, to the north, where we first 
landed, a Corean, in an unguarded moment, ac- 
cepted a button, which had attracted his attention ; 
but soon after, as the boats were shoving off, he 
ran down into the water, and insisted on restoring 
it, at the same time (by way of reparation) pushing 
the boat with all his might away from the beach. 
On almost all occasions they positively refused 
every thing offered to them. .His Corean majesty 
may well be styled " king of ten thousand isles," 
but his supposed continental dominions have been 
very much circumscribed" by our visit to his 
shores. Except in the late and present embassy, 

* It is said that the crew of a Dutch vessel, a conside- 
rable time since, wrecked on the eastern coast, were detain- 
ed in slavery for nineteen years, without being heard of, 
when some of them managed to get away. 



TO CHINA. 4i 

no ships had ever penetrated into the Yellow Sea ; 
the Lion had kept the coast of China abroad only, 
and had neither touched at the Tartar nor Corean 
side. Cook, Perouse, Bougainville, Broughton, 
and others, had well defined the bounds on the 
eastern coast of this countrv, but the western had 
hitherto been laid down on the charts from imagina- 
tion only, the main land being from a hundred to a 
hundred and thirty miles farther to the eastward 
than these charts had led us to believe. 

The Jesuits, therefore, must have taken the 
coast of Corea from report, and not from obser- 
vation, for their chart is most incorrect, and by no 
means corresponds with their usual accuracy. The 
Chinese written characters have found their way 
here, but they would appear to be confined to the 
literati, for the common language has no resem- 
blance in sound to the colloquial language of 
China. 

On the tenth we got under weigh and proceed- 
ed on our voyage, standing through the south 
passage, and made sail to the southward, giving 
the name of Lyra to an island which bore about 
east of Alceste's ten or twelve leagues, and dis- 
tance nearly the same north-westerly from Quel- 
part. On the 11th, sounded in forty-ninc fathoms 
muddy bottom, in lat. 31° 42' N., long. 126° 30' 
E. On the mornhig of the 13th we made Sul- 

G 



43 VOYAGE OF H. M. S, ALCESTE 

phur Island, a volcano, situated in lat. 27° 56' N.> 
long. 128° ir E. Whilst yet at a great distance, 
we could observe a volume of smoke at short in- 
tervals bursting from its crater. We hove-to for 
some time under its lee, in front of a horrid chasm, 
from whence the smoke issued, but found it im- 
possible to land, as there was much wind and 
swell, and the surf broke with tremendous vio- 
lence around its base. The island, which does 
not appear above four or five miles in circum- 
ference, rises precipitously from the sea, except in 
one or two spots ; its height must be considerable, 
judging from the distance we saw it, perhaps 1200 
feet. The sulphurous smell emitted, even when 
two or three miles off, was very strong. One end 
of the island displayed strata of a brilliant red-co- 
loured earth, which had been noticed before on 
some part of the Corean main. One would almost 
be induced to believe that the mercury and sul- 
phur, so abundant in these regions, had combined 
to give this vermilion hue to the ground. From 
hence we stood on to the southward with a strong 
wind at north by east, which soon increased to a 
gale. Not having sufficient run for the night, and 
being totally unacquainted with the coast we were 
approaching, the ship was put under snug canvas, 
and hauled to the wind on the starboard tack. On 
the morning of the 14th we again made sail, and 



TO CHINA. 43 

soon observed an island rising like a cone to a con- 
siderable height, with that of the grand Lewchew* 
immediately behind it. The state of the weather 
would not warrant our standing closer in with the 
land than about eight miles, as it now blew fresh 
fi*om the west-north-west, which made it a lee 
shore. We hauled to the south-westward, and in 
the afternoon saw breakers under our lee, the Lyra 
being closer in, and rather a-head. To have put 
about with the wind as it then was, would have 
embayed us for the night ; for the main body of 
the island seemed to form, with the peak we had 
left astern, and the position we were now in, a sort 
of bight. The Lyra, indeed, could not have tack- 
ed in such a swell, and was almost too near to at- 
tempt wearing. Both ships, therefore, stood on 
with every sail they could carry, on the starboard 
tack, endeavouring to weather the reef. Much 
anxiety existed, at this moment, on board the Al- 
ceste, for the fate of the brig ; the breakers rear- 
ing their white tops close to leeward of her, and 
rolling, with terrific force, upon the rocks. By 
steady steerage, however, and a press of sail, she 
at last passed the danger, and bore up through a 
channel formed by the reef and some high islets to 
the southward, very much to the satisfaction of all 
concerned ; and she was followed by the frigate. 

* Generally termed Lekeyo in charts. 



44* VOYAGE OF H. M, S. ALCESTE 

We hove-to, for the night, under the lee of the 
larger island, and the next morning's dawn, the 
weather being now extremely fine, displayed to 
our view a rich extent of cultivated scenery, such 
as we had not been lately accustomed to, on the 
naked coasts of Tartary and China. Rising in 
gentle ascent from the sea, the grounds were dis- 
posed more like the finest country-seats in England 
than those of an island so remote from the civilized 
world, — the tranquil, placid, and refreshing look of 
every thing around, forming a very pleasing con- 
trast with the boisterous sea and dangerous con- 
dition of the previous day. We were in front of 
a town, having a sort of line wall along the water's 
edge, from whence some fishing-boats approached 
the Lyra, which by this time had anchored ; and on 
the people being interrogated, by signs, as to the 
proper anchorage, they pointed round the south- 
west end of the island, kindly offering, at the same 
time, some vegetables and fresh water, which they 
had in their canoes. 

We made sail in the direction indicated, care- 
fully sounding and looking out as we advanced 
along shore, and at night anchored in eighty-two 
fathoms. On the 16th, at day light, we continued 
our course, and about noon descried a considerable 
town, with a number of vessels at anchor under it, 
in a harbour, the mouth of which was formed by 
two pier-heads. In the afternoon, having explored 



TO CHINA. 45 

our passage through the adjacent reefs (the Lyra 
leading), wc anchored in front of this town. The 
astonished natives, who most probably had never 
been visited by an European ship before*, were 
perched in thousands on the surrounding rocks and 
heights, gazing on the vessels as they entered. 
Soon after, several canoes came alongside, con- 
taining some people in office, who wished to know 
to what country" we belonged, and the nature of 
our visit. By the assistance of the Chinese inter- 
preter, whose language some of them understood, 
they were informed that we were ships of war be- 
longing to the king of England, which had carried 
an embassador from that monarch to the emperor 
of China ; and, after having landed him and his 
retinue near Pekin, we had, on our return to Can- 
ton, where the embassador was to re-embark, met 
with violent weather at sea, in which the ship had 
sprung a leak, obliging us to put in there, in order 
to repair our damages. To make this story feasi- 
ble, the well was filled by turning the cock in the 
hold ; and the chain-pumps being set to work, 
threw out volumes of water on the main deck, to 
the great amazement of these people, who seenied 
to sympathize very much with our misfortunes. 

* Captain Broughton, after the loss of the Providence in 
1797, anchored at this place in a schooner, and remained 
forty-eight hours. 



46 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

This ruse was necessary to free their minds from, 
that state of alarm, which must naturally arise on 
the arrival of ships of such unusual appearance and 
force, with whose motives they were unacquainted, 
and who would justly be considered as the objects 
of suspicion, had no reason but mere curiosity been 
assigned « They returned on shore, and put in re- 
quisition a number of carpenters, or people ac-' 
quainted with the construction of their own vessels, 
who, at daylight in the morning, hurried on board, 
bringing with them the rude implements of their 
art, in order to render what assistance they could 
in stopping the leak. This offer of kindness was, 
of course, civilly declined by the senior officer, on 
the ground that we had plenty of good carpenters 
on board, who were perfectly equal to the task ; 
that an asylum was all we required during the time 
of repair, with permission to take on board some 
fresh provisions and water, of which we stood 
much in need ; and all this we would most cheer- 
fully pay for. 

An immediate supply of bullocks, pigs, goats, 
fowls, eggs, and other articles, with abundance of 
excellent sweet potatoes, vegetables, fruit then in 
season, and even candles* and fire-wood, followed 
this intimation j supplies of the same descriptioii 

* Their candles are made of unrefined wax, with paper 
wicks, and give an excellent light. 



TO CHINA. 47 

being sent on board as often as was necessary, for 
about six weeks, the period of our stay on the is- 
land ; those who brought them, taking a receipt to 
shew they had been delivered safely ; but the chief 
authorities, who sent them, obstinately refusing any 
payment or remuneration whatever. 

Meantime, it being found impracticable for the 
frigate to swing in the inner harbour at low water, 
the road in which we lay was accurately examined, 
and found to be so protected with coral reefs to 
seaward, and covered by the land to the eastward, 
as to be completely sheltered, except in a very 
slight degree at its entrance, and of sufficient extent 
and depth to contain even ships of the line. 

On the 20th, we moved up to the head of this 
road, to a place which we called Baron-pool, where 
we afterwards rode out the equinoctial gales (or 
change of the monsoons). 

On inquiring of them where the king was, they 
said, after some hesitation, 10,000 miles off; and 
when it was hinted that it was necessary to have a 
party on shore, such as ropemakers and smiths, 
where they could have more room to work, and 
thereby expedite our refit ; they requested this might 
not be done until they heard from the king, it be- 
ing an unprecedented case, in which they were in- 
competent to act without orders. 

Unwilling to give cause of alarm or uneasiness 
to a people who seemed so well disposed, and for 



48 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

whose fears and suspicions it was but reasonable to 
make every allowance, we remained quietly on 
board until the 22d, when intimation was received 
that a great personage intended paying a visit to the 
commodore. 

At the mouth of a little river, in front of which 
we were anchored, we observed this chief embark- 
ing amidst a great concourse of people. He was 
saluted on his approach with three guns from each 
ship, and received on board with every mark of re- 
spect. He was a man about sixty years of age, 
with a venerable beard : his dress a purple robe, 
wiih very loose sleeves, and fastened round his 
middle with a sash of red silk : he had sandals on 
his feet, with white gaiters, not unlike short stock- 
ings. His cap (the badge of his dignity) was made 
of some slight material, twisted neatly into folds, 
and covered with a light purple-coloured silk. He 
had a numerous suite with him ; some were offi- 
cial people of different ranks, and the rest his per- 
sonal attendants. Here the occasion of our visit 
was again discussed ; the pumps were set to work 
to shew the eifect of the leak ; and promises, on 
their part, renewed, of every assistance. 

Although they had not heard from the king on 
the subject of our coming on shore, and notwith- 
standing it was contrary to a general rule for any 
stranger to land upon their coast, yet a few of the 
officers were always welcome to walk about within 



TO CHINA. 49 

certain bounds. After partaking of a very hand- 
some entertainment, he took his leave, the captain 
promising to return his visit. At one o'clock on 
the following day the boats were manned, and cap- 
tains Maxwell and Hall, with several of the offi- 
cers, in full uniform, proceeded into Napa-kiang*. 
This harbour is the mouth of a river, at the en- 
trance of which, on each side, are strong-built 
walls or piers, for a considerable way up, and inside 
were anchored several rather large junks. Vessels 
under the size of frigates could be received very 
well in this river ; — the bottom is soft mud. The 
river widens somewhat immediately above the an- 
chorage, and in it is situated a very pretty little 
island. At the landing-place the party were met 
by some of the chiefs, who had been most in the 
habit of visiting the ships, each of whom, taking 
one of the officers by the hand, led him through 
an immense collection of spectators to the gate of 
a public building, where the old gentleman already 
mentioned attended to welcome them into the 
house. Here an entertainment was served up ii^ 



* Napa appears to have been the original name of the 
town ; but, since their connexion with China, the term Foo, 
(or city of the first class) has been added ; making Napa- 
foo. Kiang, another Chinese word, signifies river, and, 
when coupled with Napa, means merely the river, port, 
or anchorage of the place. 

H 



50 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

a style, which a pastry-cook, or connoisseur in eat- 
ing, might describe ; but which to another might 
be a difficult task. The utmost good humour, 
however, prevailed, and a liqueur (chazzi) some7 
thing like rosolio was passed round in abundance, 
so that it was quite a man's own fault if he was not 
cheerful. 

Many loyal and friendly toasts, applicable to 
both countries, were given and drank with enthu- 
siasm. As they had hitherto generously supplied 
the ships with fresh provisions, vegetables, and 
fruit, and constantly refused any kind of payment, 
either in money or by way of barter, the captains 
thought this a proper opportunity to offer, as a 
mark of their personal regard, some presents to the 
chiefs, consisting of various wines, cherry brandy, 
English broad cloths, a telescope, and other things ; 
and on this ground only they were accepted ; re- 
serving it to themselves, at the same time, to make 
what personal return they might think proper to 
this interchange of friendship. 
■ At the end of this conference, when it was pro- 
posed to take a walk over the city, a consultation 
was held among them ; when the request was mild- 
ly declined (supposed to be through the influence 
of Buonaparte^ a man of dark and peculiar aspect, 
so named because he was suspected of being the 
most inclined to keep us at arm's length), stating, 
they were afraid some bad people might be indu- 



TO CHINA. 51 

€cd to treat us with disrespect. It was evident they 
had not the power, without higher authority, to ad- 
mit us to freer access; for the people themselves, 
almost without exception, appeared by this time to 
have no apprehension about our motives. After 
much hilarity the party took their leave, attended 
in the same way as on landing. 

It was worthy of notice how much regularity 
and decorum existed among so many thousands as 
were here collected. A lane was formed, on the 
inner side of which the smallest boys (generally 
kneeling) were placed ; another row squatted be- 
hind these ; then the men (those nearest stoooping 
a little) ; and outside the still taller people, or those 
mounted on stones, &c. ; so that all, Avithout bus- 
tle or confusion, might have a complete view of 
the strangers. The utmost silence reigned, and 
not a whisper was heard. Perhaps they had piu"- 
posely sent their women out of the way, — but the 
ladies managed (as usual) to outwit them, and to 
gratify curiosity in defiance of every precaution to 
the contrary. A number of them had either been 
placed intentionally on the other side of tlie river, 
or left there in consequence of all the men having 
come over to the show ; but the boats, in going 
out, had to pass within a few yards of their pier- 
head ; when, finding themselves in almost exclu- 
sive possession of that bank, they left their station 
on a hill, ran down to the point, and had their peep. 



^2 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTii 

whilst their friends on the opposite shore were un* 
able (had it been their intention) to keep them in 
the back ground. 

About this period a mutual friendship began to 
exist between us ; confidence took place of timi- 
dity ; and now, instead of permitting only a few to 
visit the shorc at a time, they fitted up the garden 
of a temple as a general arsenal for us : the habi- 
tations of the priests were allotted as an hospital 
for the sick, whilst other temporary buildings of 
bamboo were erected for the reception of our pow- 
der, which required airing, and for various stores 
wanting inspection and repair. The rope-makers, 
smiths, and other artificers, were established at a 
convenient spot, about a mile farther along the 
beach. They continued their usual supplies, 
bringing us even fresh water on board in their 
boats ; and, understanding we required some wood 
for spars, they felled fir-trees, floated them down 
the river, and towed them alongside, singing their 
usual boat- song, which had a very plaintive and 
pleasing effect. 

The island of Lewchew* is about sixty miles 



* It is called by an infinity of names in books and charts, 
such as Lekeyo, Lieoo-Kieoo, Lequeyo, and Lieu-Kieu j 
but the word Lewchew will better express the sound, ac^ 
cording to the native pronunciation, than any other. It i^ 
ipften by the lower classes corrupted into Doq-Choo> 



TO CHINA. 53 

long and twenty broad ; Napa Kiang, our position 
(and within five miles of Kint-ching, the capital), 
lying in lat. 26° 14' N., long. 127° 52' 1" E. This 
is its south-west point, the main body of the island 
extending from hence north, a little eastwardly. 

It IS the principal island of a group of thirty-six, 
subject to the same monarch, and the seat of the 
government. The natives trace their history back 
to a period long anterior to the Christian era ; but 
their first communication with the rest of the world, 
when their accounts became fully corroborated and 
undisputed, was about the year 605, when they 
were invaded by China, who found them at that 
time — a time when England and the greater part 
of Europe were immersed in barbarism — the same 
kind of people they are at the present day, with the 
exception of a few Chinese innovations ; or, at least, 
they appear to have altered but in a very slight de- 
gree. Indeed, it is very obvious that a revolution 
in manners, and alteration of habits, are by no 
means so likely to occur with a people thus living 
in an obscure and secluded state, as among those 
who have a wider intercourse with other nations. 
The only connexion which the Lewchews have 
had with their neighbours, and that but very limit- 
ed, has been with Japan and China, from neither 
of whom they were likely to receive any example of 
Dhange. 



54? VOYAGE OP H. M. S. ALCESTE 

The clearest and perhaps the only account given 
of their history is by Su-poa-Koang, a Chinese 
doctor or philosopher, who was, in 1719, sent as 
embassador to them*. The following is the sub- 
stance of his report as to their origin : — " The 
Lewchew tradition states, that, in the beginning, 
one man and one woman were produced in the 
great void or chaos. They had the joint name of 
Omo-mey-kieou. From their union sprang three 
sons and two daughters ; the eldest of the sons had 
the title of Tien- sun, or Grand- son of Heaven, and 
was the first king of Lewchew ; the second was 
the father of the tributary princes ; the rest of the 
people acknowledged the third as their progenitorf. 
The eldest daughter had the title of Celestial Spi- 
rit ; the second, the Spirit of the Sea. After the 
death of Tien-sun, twenty-five dynasties reigned 
successively in this country, occupying (according 
to their story) a period of 17,802 years previous to 
the time of Chuntein, who commenced his reign 
in 1187. This is their fabulous history, of which 
they are very jealous ; but nothing certain was 
known until 605, before which the inhabitants of 
Formosa and the adjacient islands were denomina- 

* Vide Lettres Edifiantes, tome xxiv. 

t It seems rather unaccountable, in this marvelous tra- 
dition, that the third son, to whom no wife is assigned, 
should have had the most numerous progeny. 



TO CHINA. 55 

ted by the Chinese the Oriental Barbarlajis. In 
this year the emperor sent to examine them ; but, 
from want of interpreters, no clear account was ob- 
tained. They brought back, however, some of the 
islanders to Sin-gan-foo, the capital of the province 
of Chensi, and the seat of the court under the Souy 
dynasty. Some Japanese, who happened to be 
there, knew the people, and described them as a 
race of barbarians. The emperor Yang-ti sent 
forthwith some who understood their language to 
Lewchew, to command their homage, aud ac- 
knowledgment of him as their sovereign. The 
prince of Lewchew haughtily replied, that he would 
own none as his superior. A fleet with 10,000 
men was now fitted out from Amoi and the ports 
of Fokien, which force, overcoming the efforts of 
the islanders, landed at .Lewchew; and the king, 
who put himself at the head of his people to repel 
the enemy, being killed, the Chinese burned the 
capital; and, carrying off 5000 of the natives, as ^y]a.v, 
slaves, returned to China. From this, until 1291, 
the Lewchews were left vii?-?inlested, when Chit- 
soo, an emperor of the Yuen family, revivnig his 
pretensions, fitted out a fleet against them from the 
ports of Fokien ; but, from various causes, it never 
proceeded farther than the western coast of Fomno- 
sa, and from thence returned unsuccessful to Chi- 
na. In the year 1372, Hong-ou, emperor of Chi- 
na, and founder of the Ming dynasty, sent a great 



Y/y jtf'O "Tc 



-V*- 



'f^^.^J 



T. m 



06 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

mandarin to Tsay-tou, who governed in Tchon- 
chan, the country being at this period divided, in 
consequence of civil disturbances, into the three 
kingdoms, who, in a private audience, acquitted 
himself with such address as to persuade the king 
to declare himself tributary to China, and to re* 
quest of the emperor the investiture of his estate. 

" Having thus managed by finesse what arms 
had been unable to effect, the emperor took care to 
receive, with great distinction, the envoys sent by 
their master. They were accompanied by offer- 
ings of line horses, scented woods, sulphur, copper, 
and tin, and sent back again with rich presents for 
the king and queen ; among which was a gold 
seal. 

" The two kings of the other districts, Chan-pe 
and Channan, followed the example of Chonchan, 
and their submission was most graciously received. 
Thirty-six Chinese families were sent to live in 
Cheouli*i where grants of land were conceded to 
them ; here they taught the Chinese written cha- 
racters, introduced Chinese books, and the cere- 
monies in honour of Confucius. The sons of the 
Lewchewan grandees were also sent to Nankin to 
study Chinese, and were educated with distinction, 
at the expense of the emperor. 

* That district of Tchon-chan in which the capital is si- 
tuated, and where we resided. 



TO CHINA. 67 

" The reigns of Ou-ning and Tse-chao, the son 
and grandson of Tsay-tou, presented nothing ex- 
traordinary ; but that of Chang-pa-chi'was marked 
by the reunion of Chan-pe and Channan with 
Tchon-chan into one kingdom, and the government 
has since continued in the hands of a single chief. 
Levvchevv is said henceforth to have had consider- 
able intercourse with China and Japan in the way of 
commerce, much to her advantage^ and to have 
even mediated between those two powers when 
misunderstandings had occurred. 

" The famous Tay-cosama, however, emperor 
of Japan, whom the Chinese call ambitious, pirati- 
cal,' irreligious, cruel, and debauched, because he 
had pillaged their coasts, sent a haughty letter to 
Chang-ning, commanding him to transfer his ho- 
mage from China to Japan, which Chang-ning as 
firmly refused. Notwithstanding the death of Tay- 
cosama, the Japanese fitted out a fleet at Satsuma, 
made a descent on Lewchew, took the king pri- 
soner, and carried him off, having plundered the 
palace, and killed one of his near relations, who 
also resisted the acknowledgment of the Japanese. 
During a captivity of two years, Chang-ning ac- 
quired the admiration of the captors by his unyield- 
ing firmness and constancy in refusing to swerve 
from his first allegiance, and tliey generously sent 
him back to his states. 

I 



98 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

" The Tartar dynasty, soon after this, was placed 
by conquest on the throne of China, and made 
some alteration in the nature of the tribute to be 
paid, stipulating that envoys, in future, should be 
sent to Pekin only once in two years. Chang-hi 
paid: much attention to the welfare of Lewchew ; 
and his memory to this day is much respected by 
the people. It is said to be nearly a thousand 
years since the bonzes of the sect of Fo introduc- 
ed their mode of worship into these islands, which 
has continued to the present time. 

" When they take an oath, it is not before the 
statues or images of their idols ; but they burn in- 
cense, and placing themselves in a respectful atti- 
tude before certain consecrated stones wnich are to 
be seen in various public situations, they repeat 
some mysterious words, said to have been diutated 
by the divine daughters of Omo-mey-kieou. They 
have also among them a set of holy women, who 
worship certain spirits deemed powerful among 
them, and who visit the sick, give medicines, and 
recite prayers. This seems to have given rise to 
the accusation of an old missionary at Japan, who 
said they practised sorcery and witch raft. Chang- 
hi likewise introduced among them the adoration 
of a new deity, under the name of Tien-fey, or 
Celestial Queen. Polygamy is allowed here as in 
China, but seldom practised* Men and women of 



TO CHINA. 59 

the same surname cannot intermarry. The king 
can only take a wife from one of three great 
families, who always hold the most distinguish- 
ed posts : tliere is also a fourth, of the highest 
consideration, but with which the princes can- 
not form an alliance, because it is doubtful 
whether that family is not itself of the royal 
line. Their chiefs are generally hereditary, but 
not always ; for men of merit are promoted, and 
all are liable to be degraded for improper con- 
duct.^ The king's revenue arises from his own 
domains ; from imposts on salt, sulphur, copper, 
tin, and several other articles; and from this in- 
come he defrays the expenses of the state, and the 
salaries of the great officers. 

" These salaries consist nominally in a certain 
number of bags of rice ; but they are paid gene- 
rally in silks, and various other necessary articles 
of clothing and food, in proportions equal to the 
value of so many bags of that grain. All their 
interior commerce or marketing is performed by 
the women and girls at regulated times. They 
carry their little loads upon their heads with sin- 
gular dexterity, consisting of the usuA necessaries 
of life and wearing apparel, which they exchange 
for what they more immediately ^vr.iit, or for the 
copper coin ot China and Japan*. The men are 
said to be neat workmen in gold, silver, copper, 

* We saw no money among them. 



60 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

and other metals; and there are manufactories of 
silk, cotton, flax, and paper. They also build 
very good vessels, quite large enough to under- 
take voyages to China and Japan, where their barks 
are much esteemed. They have adopted the Chi- 
nese calendar with resp>-"ct to the division of the 
month and year. This island produces rice, wheat, 
and all sorts of vegetables, in abundance. The 
people of the coast are expert fishermen, and the 
sea and rivers are well furnished with fish. They 
are famous divers, and obtain shells and mother-of- 
pearl, very much esteemed in China and Japan. 

" They possess many woods proper for dyeing ; 
and one tree in particular yields an oil which is 
held in great repute. They have likewise a great 
variety of most delicate fruits, oranges, citrons, 
lemons, long-y-ven^ lee -tehees^ grapes, &c. Wolves, 
tigers, and bears, are unknown ; but they have 
many useful animals, such as horses, water-dogs, 
black cattle, stags, poultry, geese, peacocks, pige- 
ons, doves. Sec. 

" The camphor, cedar, and ebony, are among 
the number of their trees ; and they have also 
wood well fitted for ship-building, and for public 
edifices. They are represented as disdaining sla- 
very, lyin^, and cheating. They are fond of 
games and amusements, and celebrate, with much 
pomp, the worship of their idols, at the end and 
commencement of the year ; and there exists much 



TO CHINA, 61 

union among the branches of famiUes, who give 
frequent and cheerful entertainments to each other. 

The ceremony of installation of the king of 
Lewchew is thus described : " When the king- 
dies, his heir sends an ambassador to the emperor, 
to make known that circumstance, and to demand 
his investiture. — Meantime the Lewchews treat as 
king and queen the prince and the princess his 
wife, though it is not, according to the Pekin re- 
gulations, until after the installation that they as- 
sume the titles. The emperor either sends from 
himself a qualified person to perform this ceremony, 
or grants full powers to the Lewchew embassador 
to do so on his return. 

" If the former is determined upon, the emperor 
orders the tribunal of ceremonies to find a fit per- 
son to sustain with dignity the majesty of the 
Chinese empire ; and the choice falls on whom 
they know the emperor wishes, a second being 
named in the event of death or sickness. The 
emperor, after approving the choice, admits the 
embassador to an audience, and gives them the 
necessary instructions, and the presents intended 
for the king and queen. The mandarins of Fokien 
are ordered to equip a vessel, and to choose a cap- 
tain, officers, sailors, soldiers, and pilots, some- 
times amounting to three hundred and fifty persons. 
The embassador is conducted from court with 
great pomp to the capital of Fokien, where he is 



62 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

lodged in a commodious palace, and treated with 
much distinction. 

" He is embarked with great state, when, after 
the usual ceremonies to heaven, and the goddess 
Tienfey, they make sail. On their anchoring". near 
Napa Kiang, the king gives the necessary orders 
for receiving the embassador, with all the honours 
due to the title of Celestial Envoy y that is, to the 
envoy of the son of heaven, or the emperor of 
China. The princes and graiidees repair to the 
port in their court dresses. A number of vessels 
richly ornamented conduct the stranger into har- 
bour, where the embassador and suite lands, and is 
atleaded to his palace with great pomp by the 
princes and grandees, who take care to make such 
an appearance as to do honour to the nation. 
Every thing is regulated with respect to the main- 
tenance of the embassador and retinue, who are all 
permitted, even to the lowest domestic, the privi- 
lege of carrying a certain quantity of money, and 
of Chinese merchandise, to make a little trade. In 
the time of the Ming dynasty, the profits of the 
Chinese were considerable at Lewchcw; at present 
only moderate. The embassador ordinarily piques 
himself on having no personal connexion with 
commerce*, 

* This is quite in. the inflated style of these celestials, 
whilst in the practice of every thing that is sordid. 



TO CHINA. 63 

" After having taken some repose, he repairs to 
the grand hall, where he finds a magnificent estrade, 
on which he seats himself. On a signal given, at 
the same instant, the princes, ministers, and gran- 
dees of the first order, placed according to rank, 
make the nine prostrations to salute the emperor. 
The embassador stands ; and, after the ceremony, 
makes a profound reverence. When the chiefs of 
the second and third class prostrate themselves, he 
also stands, and afterwards presents his hand to 
them. On the performance of the inferior chiefs, 
the embassador is seated, but afterwards presents 
his hand to them. This ceremonial finished, some 
grandees on the part of the king come to congratu- 
late the embassador on his safe arrival. The rest 
of the day is spent in repasts, public rejoicings, 
and concerts, in all the cities and neighbouring vil- 
lages, and on board the vessels. On a certain day 
the embassador goes to the temple of the goddess 
Tienfey, to return thanks for her protection, and 
from thence to the imperial palace, where he per- 
forms the Chinese ceremonies, in honour of Con- 
fucius. On another day the embassador with all 
his retinue repairs to the royal hall, where are the 
tablets of the deceased kings, the heir to the throne 
also appearing, but as a prince simply. 

" The embassador then performs, in the name of 
the emperor, the Chinese marks of respect in 
honour of the deceased king, the predecessor of 



64 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE- 

the reigning prince, and also for his forefathers; 
and presents the odours, the silks, manufactures, 
and silver, sent by the emperor for that purpose. 
The prince then makes the nine prostrations to 
thank the emperor, and inquires after the state of 
his health. He next salutes the embassador, and 
dines, familiarly, and without ceremony, with him. 
When all is regulated for the instalment, the em- 
bassador with all his suite, and a great number of 
people, proceed to the palace. The court is filled 
with lords and chieftains, richly attired, and ranged 
in proper order. On his entrance, the embassador 
is received by the princes, and conducted, with 
music sounding, to the royal hall, where there is 
an elevated estrade for the prince and princess, and 
and a distinguished place for the embassador. All 
the princes, grandees, and ministers, standing, the 
embassador reads, with a loud voice, the imperial 
diploma ; in which the emperor, after some eulogy 
on the defunct sovereign, acknowledges for king 
and queen the hereditary prince and princess his 
wife. This declaration is accompanied by exhor- 
tations of the emperor to the new monarch, to go- 
vern according to law ; and to the people of the 
thirty-six isles to be faithful in their allegiance. 
After it is read, the imperial patent is presented to 
the king, who transfers it to the minister, to be re- 
tained among the archives of the court. Then 
the king, queen, princes, &c., make the nine pros- 



TO CHINA, 65 

trations, to salute and thank the emperor. The 
embassador next displays the rich presents from his 
master to the king and queen, when the usual 
thanks are returned. Whilst the embassador re- 
poses himself for a short time in an adjoining apart- 
ment, the king and queen, seated on their thrones, 
receive the homage of the princes, ministers, gran- 
dees, and deputies, of the thirty-six isles. The 
queen then retires, and the king entertains the em- 
bassador Avith much splendour. 

" Some days afterwards, seated in the royal 
chair, borne by many porters, the king, followed 
by the princes and ministers, and a brilliant suite, 
goes to the hotel of the embassador. 

" The road is ornamented by triumphal arches ; 
- — and at certain distances are found tents, in 
which are placed fruits, flowers, and perfumes. 
Around the chair of the king are seven young girls, 
on foot, carrying his flags and umbrellas. The 
princes, ministers, and grandees, are on horseback, 
and are emulous to distinguish themselees, on this 
occasion, by their superb dresses and numerous 
suite. 

" The embassador, at the gate of the hotel, re- 
ceives his majesty with great respect, and leads 
him to the grand Kail. The king now again 
salutes the emperor ; after which he honours the 
embassador, by offering with his own hand wine 
and tea. This the embassador declines ; and, re- 

K 



66 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

turning the cup, he takes one for himself, which he 
does not drink until after the king has first drank 
his. This ceremony finished, his majesty and 
suite return to the palace. He names, some days 
afterwards, an embassador to proceed to the court 
of the emperor, to thank his majesty, and to send 
him presents, a list of which is communicated to 
the Chinese embassador, and he orders a vessel to 
be equipped, which accompanies that of the Chi- 
nese on its return. At last, the imperial envoy, 
having determined the day of his departure, takes 
leave of the king ; and some time afterwards the 
latter proceeds to the hotel of the embassador, to 
wish him a happy voyage, and to make the usual 
prostrations in honour of the emperor, and to return 
him thanks. 

" During the sojourn of the embassador, the 
king gives him frequent entertainments ; some- 
times in the grand palace ; at others in his pleasure- 
houses ; and, occasionally, in water-parties. The 
queen, princesses, and ladies, assist at these cere- 
monies. They have music, dancing, and come- 
dies, with songs, in praise of the imperial and royal 
families, and of the embassador, &c.'* 

Such is the account of Supoa-Koang ; and, 
having observed a great part of what he relates to 
be true, it is but fair and reasonable to give him 
credit for what we had not the opportunity of actu- 
ally seeing. One thing appears very evident, — 



TO CHINA. ^7 

that these poor islanders have been much cajoled 
and humiliated, as well as encumbered with a load 
of ceremonies, very foreign to their nature, by the 
usurpation of the Chinese, 

The dress of these people is as remarkable for 
its simplicity as it is for its, elegance. Tiie hair, 
which is of a gl :)Say olack (being anointed with 
an oleaginous substance, obtained from the leaf of 
a tree), is turned up from befure, from behind, and 
on both sides, to the crown of the head, and there 
tied close down ; great care being taken that all 
should be perfectly smooth ; and the part of the 
hair beyond the fastening, or string, being now 
twisted into a neat litde top- knot, is there retained 
by two fasteners, called camesashee and usisashee^ 
made either of gold, silver, or brass, according to 
the circumstances of the wearer ; the former of 
these having a little star on the end of it, which 
points forward. This mode of hair-dressing is 
practised with the greatest uniformity, from the 
highest to the lowest of the males, and has a very 
pleasing effect, whether viewed singly, or when 
they are gathered together. At the age of ten 
years the boys are entided to the usisashee^ and at 
fifteen they wear both. Except those in office, 
who wear only a cap on duty, they appear to have 
no covering for the head, at least in fine weather. 
Interiorly, they wear a kind of shirt, and a pair of 
drawers, but over all a loose robe, with wide 



68 VOYAGE OP H. M. S. ALCESTE 

sleeves, and a broad sash round their middle. 
They have sandals on their feet, neatly formed of 
straw ; and the higher orders have also white gai- 
ters, coming above the ancle. The quality of 
their robes depends on that of the individual. — 
The superior classes wear silk of various hues, 
with a sash of contrasting colour, sometimes inter- 
woven with gold. — The lower orders make use of 
a sort of cotton stuff, generally of a chesnut colour, 
and sometimes striped, or spotted, blue and white. 

There are nine ranks of grandees, or public offi- 
cers, distinguished by their caps; of which we ob- 
served four. — The highest noticed was worn by a 
member of the royal family, which was of a pink 
colour, with bright yellow flowers. — The next in 
dignity was the purple ; then plain yellow ; and 
the red seemed to be the lowest. 

On the female attire we could make but little 
observation. — The higher ranks are said to w^ar 
(and some indeed were seen with) simply a loose 
flowing robe, without any sash ; the hair either 
hanging loose over the shoulders, or tied up over 
the left side of the head, the ends falling down 
again. The lower orders seemed to have petti- 
coats scarcely deeper than a highlander's kilt, with 
a short, but loose, habit above. 

The island of Lewchew itself is situate in the 
happiest climate of the globe. — Refreshed by the 
sea-breezes, which, from its geographical position, 



TO CHINA. 69 

blo^v over it at every period of the year, it is free 
from the extremes of heat and cold, which oppress 
many other countries ; whilst from the general con- 
figuration of the land, being more adapted to the 
production of rivers and streams than of bogs and 
marshes, one great source of disease in the warmer 
latitudes has no existence : and the people seemed 
to enjoy robust health ; for we observed no dis- 
eased objects, nor beggars of any description, 
among them. ^ 

The verdant lawns and romantic scenery of 
Tinian and Juan Femandes, so well described in 
Anson's Voyage, are here displayed in higher per- 
fection, and on a much more magnificent scale ; 
for cultivation is added to the most enchanting 
beauties of nature, irom a commanding height 
above the ships, the view is, in all directions, pic- 
turesque and delightful. — On one hand are seen 
the distant islands, rising from a wide expanse of 
ocean, whilst the clearness of the water enables the 
eye to trace all the coral reefs, which protect the 
anchorage immediately below. To the south is 
the city of Nafoo, the vessels at anchor in the har- 
bour, with their streamers flying ; and in the inter- 
mediate space appear numerous hamlets scattered 
about on the banks of the rivers, which meander 
in the valley beneath; the eye being, in every 
direction, charmed by the varied hues of the luxu- 
riant foliage around their habitations. Turning to 



70 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

the east, the houses of Kint-ching, the capital city, 
built in their peculiar style, are observed hei\ ahd 
there, opening from among the lofty trees which 
surround and shade them, rising one above another 
in gentle ascent to the submit of a hill, Avhich is 
crowned by the king's palace : the intervening 
grounds between Napafoo and Kint-ching, a dis- 
tance of some miles, being ornamented by a con- 
tinuation of villas and country-houses. To the 
north, as far as the eye can reach, the higher land 
is covered with extensive forests. 

At a short distance from this eminence, the tra- 
veller is led by a foot-path to what seems only a 
little wood ; on entering which, under an archway 
formed by the intermingling branches of the op- 
posite trees, he passes along a serpentine labyrmth, 
every here and there intersected by others. Not 
far from each other, on either side of these walks, 
small wicker doors are observed, on opening any 
of which, he is surprised by the appearance of a 
court-yard and house, with the children, and all 
the usual cottage train, generally gamboling about ; 
so that, whilst a man fancies himself in some lonely 
and sequestered retreat, he is, in fact, in the middle 
of a populous, but invisible, village. 

Nature has been bountiful in all her gifts to 
Lewchew : for such is the felicity of its soil and 
climate, that productions of the vegetable kingdom, 
very distinct in their nature, and generally found 



TO CHINA. 71 

in regions far distant from each other, grow here 
side by side. It is not merely, as might be ex- 
pected, the country of the orange and the Hme ; 
but the banyan of India and the Norwegian fir, the 
tea plant and sugar-cane, all flourish together. In 
addition to many good qualities, not often found 
combined, this island can also boast its rivers and 
secure harbours ; and last, though not least, a wor- 
thy, a friendly, and a happy race of people. 

Many of these islanders displayed a spirit of in- 
telligence and genius, which seemed the more ex- 
traordinary, considering the confined circle in 
which they live ; such confinement being almost 
universally found to be productive of narrowness of 
mind. Our friends here were an exception to the 
general rule- —Madera Cost/ong, one of our most 
constant and intimate friends, acquired such pro- 
ficiency in the English language, in the course of a 
few weeks, as to make himself tolerably understood. 
He evidently came on board, in the first instance, 
as a spy upon our conduct, before they were satis- 
fied that we meant no harm ; and no man was ever 
better adapted for this duty ; for, as his concilia- 
tory and pleasing manner won upon all hearts, he 
had therefore a natural access every where, and, 
had " stratagems or schemes" existed, he of all 
others was the most likely to have discovered 
them. 



73 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

His not assuming his proper character, which 
was that of a man of some distinction, until his 
mind was satisfied about us, and his then doing it 
with frankness, is a proof that such were his origi- 
nal motives. To acquire our tongue, he marked 
the sound of any English word for the most fami- 
liar articles of the table, or terms of conversation, 
and noted them in symbols of his own language, 
with their signification, which enabled him, with 
slight reference to his vocabulary, to manage with- 
out having recourse to the interpreter. If he hap- 
pened to be walking on shore with any of the offi- 
cers, he would not lose the sound or meaning of a 
word because he had not his book with him, but 
scratched it on the leaf of a tree, and transcribed it 
at his leisure. His first attempt to connect a sen- 
tence was rather sudden and unexpected. Rising 
to go away one evening after his usual lesson, he 
slowly articulated, " You give me good wine, 
-—I tank you, — I go shore." — He delighted in 
receiving information, and his remarks were al- 
ways pertinent.— The map of the world, with 
the track of the ship from England to Lew- 
chew, was pointed out and explained to him, 
which he, as well as others, seemed to trace with 
peculiar care, and at last, in a great degree, to com- 
prehend, although the subject was, in the first in- 
stance, entirely new to them, for they certainly had 
no idea of the vast extent or figure of the globe. 



TO CHINA. 73 

He was gay or serious, as occasion required, but 
was always respectable ; and of Madera it might 
be truly said, that he was a gentleman, not formed 
upon this model, or according to that rule, but 
** stamped as such by the sovereign hand of 
Nature." 

They all seemed to be gifted with a sort of po- 
liteness which had the fairest claim to be termed 
natural ; for there was nothing constrained, nothing 
stiff or studied in it. 

Captain Maxwell having one day invited a party 
to dine \i ith him, the health of the king of Lew- 
chew was drank in a bumper : — one of them, im- 
mediately addressing himself with much warmth 
and feeling to the interpreter, desired him to state 
how much they felt gratified by, such a compli- 
ment ; that they would take care to tell it to every 
body when they w^ent on shore ; and proposed, at 
the same time, a binnper to the king of the Engelees. 
A Chinese mandarin, under the like circuqistances, 
would, most probably, have chin-chinned (that is, 
clenched his fists) as usual ; he would have snivelled 
and grinned the established number of times, and 
bow'ed his head in slavish submission to the bare 
mention of his tyrant's name ; but it would never 
have occurred to him to have given, in his turn, 
the health of the sovereign of England. 

This superiority of manner brought to recollection 
the boorishncss of the Chinese near the Pei-ho. 

L 



74 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

Some mandarins, who were not of a rank sufficient- 
ly high to be entertained in the cabin, were invited 
to dine with the officers ; and some of them, after 
gnawing the leg of a fowl, would without any ce- 
remony thrust the remains of it into any other dish 
near them ; and instead of following bur example 
(as the Lewchews uniformly did) in pouring out 
the wine into glasses, or, indeed, in ariy way ac- 
commodating themselves to our style, they would 
take up, with both hands, the decanter, and apply- 
ing it to their greasy mouths, thereby secure the 
exclusive possession of that bottle. 

These islanders are represented as being remarka- 
ble for their honesty and adherence to truth, and to 
this character they appear to be fully entitled. The 
chiefs informed us that there was little probability 
of their stealing any thing ; but, as iron imple- 
ments were a great temptation, they begged that 
none might be left carelessly about. — Although, 
however, the rope machinery and other articles re- 
mained, for many nights, unguarded on the beach, 
and their opportunities on board were numberless, 
yet not one theft occurred during the whole of our 
sojourn among them. That proud and haughty 
feeling of national superiority, so strongly existing 
among the common class of British seamen, which 
induces them to hold all foreigners cheap, and to 
treat them with contempt, often calling them out- 
landish lubbers in their own country/, was, at this 



TO CHINA. 75 

island, completely subdued and tamed by the gen- 
tle manners and kind behaviour of the most paci- 
fic people upon earth. Although completely inter- 
mixed, and often working together, both on shore 
and on board, not a single quarrel or complaint 
took place on either side during the whole of our 
stay ; on the contrary, eac ' succeeding day added 
to friendship and cordiality. 

Although it was, no doubt, infringing on their 
established rules for strangers to land upon their 
coasts, yet they granted every possible indulgence, 
and conceded the point as far as they could ; for 
their dispositions seemed evidently at war with the 
unsocial law. When any of the officers wandered 
into the country beyond the bounds prescribed, 
they were never rudely repulsed, as in China or 
Morocco, but mildly entreated to return, as a favour 
to those in attendance, lest they should incur 
blame ; and, as their appeal was powerful, it was 
never disregarded. 

They erected little temporary bamboo watch- 
houses or sheds, where those engaged in this duty 
resided ; and, as we wandered about, handed us 
over from one post to another. In these houses 
they always pressed the officers to partake of their 
fare, which was often very good, especially a kind 
of hung beef, which they have the art of curing 
extremely well. 



76 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

They appear to be much accustomed to these 
pic-nic sort of parties, having a small japanned 
box, containing sliding drawers for the various vi- 
ands, M^hich a boy generally carried, on the end of 
a bamboo, to any part of the fields where they ' 
thought proper to dine. 

One man, very often accompanied by Geroo, or 
(as he was sometimes termed, from having a con- 
stant smile upon his countenance) the laughing 
mandarin^ seemed to carry about with him a con- 
stant supply of these refreshments, and chazzi, a 
liqueur, which led us to believe that he had been 
deputed for the express purpose of paying atten- 
tion to our officers. 

The sudden vicissitudes of Aveather to which we 
had been exposed, by leaving England during ex- 
treme cold, and passing suddenly into the torrid 
zone ; then immediately afterwards into the cold 
raw climate of the southern Atlantic ; meeting with 
heat again at the Cape of Good Hope ; then cross- 
ing in rather a high latitude the chilly Southern 
Ocean ; and, quickly following that, appearing on 
the burning coast of Java ; might, in fact, be said 
to have exposed us, in the short period of four 
months, to the effects of three summers and three 
winters ; and proved, as might naturally be sup- 
posed, extremely trying to the health of the men. 
On our arrival at Lewchew, our cases of sickness, 
though not numerous, were severe ; and to the 



TO CHINA. 77 

kindness of the natives may, in a great measure, be 
attributed their recovery. They were not only 
comfortably lodged, but the higher class of peo- 
ple* daily attended, inquiring into their wants, giv- 
ing additional coogas or eggs, and other delicacies, 
to those whose cases more particularly required 
them, and paying a cheering attention to the whole ; 
for theirs ^^'as a substantial, not a cold or ostenta- 
tious charity, 

A young man, whose case had long been hope- 
less, died here. On that night a coffin \vas made 
by our own carpenters, whilst the nati\es dug a 
grave, in the English manner, in a small burial- 
ground under some trees near the landing-place. 

Next morning we were astonished to find a 
number of the principal inhabitants clad in deep 
mourning (white robes with black or blue sashes), 
waiting to attend the funeral. The captain came 
on shore with the division of the ship's company 
to which the man belonged, and proceeded to the 

* One elderly man, whom Mr. Fisher (the assistant sur- 
geon), who was always at the hospital, thought to be a 
physician, wrote something at the desk, which Mr. Fisher 
concluded was a prescription. On translating it afterwards 
at Canton it turned out to be a moral maxim : " Let not the 
present day be passed in idleness. — The days of our youth 
will not return. — By being diligent and studious we arrive 
at olhccs of rank." — (Literally) " We ride on horseback, 
and wear embroidered clothes." 



78 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

garden where the body lay. His messmates bore 
the coffin, covered with the colours ; the seamen 
ranged themselves two and two, in the rear of it ; 
next were the midshipmen ; then the superior of- 
ficers ; and last of all the captain, as is usual in mi- 
litary ceremonies of this kind. The natives, who 
had been watching attentively this arrangement, 
and observing the order of precedence to be invert- 
ed, without the least hint being given, but with 
that unassuming modesty and delicacy which cha- 
racterize them, when the procession began to 
move, placed themselves in front of the coffin, and 
in this order marched slowly to the grave. The 
utmost decency and silence prevailed whilst the fu- 
neral service was performing by the chaplain, al- 
though there was a considerable concourse of peo- 
ple ; and afterwards they marched back, but in 
different order, to the garden. Here they took the 
directions for the shape of a stone to be placed at the 
head of a tomb, which, as a mark of respect, they 
had already begun to erect over the grave. This 
was soon finished; and the shape of the English 
letters being drawn with Indian ink, they, notwith- 
standing the simplicity of their tools, cut out with 
much neatness the following epitaph, which, when 
explained to them, seemed to be highly gratify- 
ing :— 



TO CHINA. 79 

Here lies buried 

Aged Twenty-One Years, William Hares, Seaman, 

Of His Britannic Majesty's ship Alceste. 

Died Oct. 15, 1816. 

This Monument was erected 

By the King 

And Inhabitants 

Of this most hospitable Island. 

The day after the interment they went to the 
tomb, with their priests, and performed the funeral 
service according to the rites of their own rehgion. 
There is not an act of these excellent and interest- 
ing people which the mind has not pleasure in con- 
templating and recollecting. Not satisfied with 
having smoothed the path of death, they carried 
their kind regards even beyond the grave ! 

Of our religion they could form no idea, nor was 
it possible to explain it to them. They seemed at 
first to consider us as worshippers of the sun or 
moon, and, of course, our astronomers as high 
priests, from seeing them busied about an observa- 
tory which had been erected in our garden, with a 
large telescope for the examination of the heavenly 
bodies. 

One Sunday a number of them were observed, 
during divine service, peeping through the quarter- 
deck ports, but were not noticed in sufficient time 
to invite them in. 



80 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

Captain Maxwell's horse, in riding one morning 
to inspect the progress of the artificers, stumbled, 
and fell among some rocks ; and by this accident 
the fore finger of his left hand was not only frac- 
tured, but badly dislocated. Some of his Lew- 
chewan friends, who were near him, ran to the next 
village for one of their surgical professors. He 
soon arrived, and, after much salutation, proceed- 
ed to examine the injury (the dislocation had in 
the interim been reduced hy the coxswain pulling 
upon it), and then stated that he would come on 
board the ship, whither the captain was then pro- 
ceeding, in an hour, with the applications he 
thought necessary for it. At the time appointed, 
one of the chiefs, with this surgeon, and another 
more in the character of a physician, and their re- 
tinue, some of them bearing a medicine-chest, 
made their appearance alongside. The injury be- 
ing again examined (and it having been previous- 
ly decided they were to have the management of 
the cure, under surveillance, in order to observe 
how they would act), a fowl was killed with much 
form, and skinned, and a composition of flour and 
eggs, with some warm ingredients about the con- 
sistence of dough, was put round the fractured 
part (which had the effect of retaining it in its po- 
sition), and the whole enclosed in the skin of the 
fowl. As this fowl appeared to have been sacri- 



TO CHINA. 81 

ficed, its skin being applied to enclose the whole 
was most probably meant to act as a charm. 

The manual part finished, the physician proceed- 
ed to examine the general state of health, and the 
pulse appeared to be his chief, and indeed only 
guide in this respect. The arm was laid bare to 
the shoulder, and he applied liis fingers with great 
attention, and with as much solemnity as ever 
issued from Warwick-lane, to the course of the 
artery, and at all parts of the arm where he could 
feel it beat, to ascertain whether it was every where 
alike ; and, lest there should be any mistake in 
this point, the other ai'm underwent the same in- 
vestigation; the whole party looking all the while 
extremely grave. Having now decided as to tlie 
medicines necessary on this occasion, his little 
chest was brought forward, with his pharmacopoeia, 
and a sort of Clinical Guide, directing die quantity 
and quality of the dose. 

His chest was extremely neat, its exterior japan- 
ned black, and a number of partitions in it, again sub- 
divided, so as to contain about a hundred and eighty 
diftbrent articles (quite enough in all conscience, 
even among the greatest hypochondriacs and drug- 
swallowers) ; but they were fortunately all simples, 
being a collection of wood-shavings, roots, seeds, 
and dried flowers of his own country. There ap- 
peared also some ginseng, a product of Tartary 
and Corea, much in vogue in these parts. Small 

M 



82 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

portions of the specified articles were measured 
out with a silver spatula, and put up in little par- 
cels, and directions were now issued as to the 
mode of boiling and drinking the decoction. Next 
day they were highly delighted to hear the good 
effect of their medicines, though they had never 
been taken (as many a poor doctor is cheated by 
cunning patients); and a new application was 
brought for the finger, termed a fish poultice, so 
composed as to look, and indeed to smell, some* 
thing like currant-jelly. 

Having carried on this scheme for a few days, 
they were then informed that the finger was so 
much better as to render their attendance unneces- 
sary any longer ; and, as a reward for their services, 
they were presented with some little articles, and, 
among others, as an addition to the chest, some 
spirits of hartshorn, displaying to them its effect on 
the olfactory organs, with which they were quite 
astonished and pleased ; some spirits of lavender 
and oil of mint, they also considered a great acqui- 
sition. The physician, more especially, seemed to 
be a very respectable man, and was treated as such 
by those about him. Their practice seems to be 
a good deal derived from the Chinese, for their no- 
tion of the circulation of the blood, or rather their 
having no correct notion about it, is the same. 
Neither have they any idea of anatomy from actual 
observation, and, of course, the greater operations 



TO CHINA. SB 

cannot be undertaken ; one man only was examined 
by Mr. Rankin, who had lost his arm, and his 
stump was rather a rude one. Some corn was left 
with them, which they promised to cultivate ; and 
fortunately captain Hall had some English pota- 
toes, which were likely to be productive, and the 
mode of planting them was particularly described. 
Their fields were extremely neat, and their furrows 
arranged with much regularity, by a plough of a 
simple construction drawn by bulls, assisted occa- 
sionally by the use of a hoe ; and they practised ir- 
rigation in the culture of their rice. A young 
bull of English breed (though calved on the island) 
was presented to the chief authorities by captain 
Maxwell, leaving them also a cow (having two on 
board), so that it is possible the next visitors who 
touch at Lewchew may find a larger, though they 
cannot find a better, race of cattle. 

The mode of dancing of these people may, strict- 
ly speaking, be termed hopping; for they jump 
about upon one leg only, keeping the other up, 
and changing occasionally, making a number of 
extravagant motions, and clapping with their hands, 
and singing at the same time their dancing song. 
According to our notions, this was their only un- 
graceful action. A number of them thus engaged, 
more especially when joined by the officers (who 
must needs acquire their style), formed rather a gro- 
tesque assembly. They attempted our mode of 



S4* VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

country dancing, and managed (considering it was 
necessary to make use of both feet) tolerably well. 

The Lewchews are a very small race of people, 
the average height of the men not exceeding five 
feet two inches at the utmost. Almost the whole 
animal creation here is of diminutive size, but all 
excellent in their kind. Their bullocks seldom 
weighed more than 350 lb., but they were plump 
and well-conditioned, and the beef very fine ; their 
goats and pigs were reduced in the same propor- 
tion, their poultry seeming to form the only ex- 
ception. However small the men might be, they 
were sturdy, well-built, and athletic. The ladies 
we had no opportunity of measuring, but they ap- 
peared to be of corresponding stature. 

These islanders, most probably, originated from 
Japan or Corea, having a good deal of the Corean 
lineaments, but rather milder, and softened down. 
They are obviously not of Chinese origin, having 
nothing whatever of that drowsy and elongated eye 
which peculiarly distinguishes the latter; nor would it 
seem that the few Chinese and their descendants 
settled on the island freely mixed with the native. 
Lewchews, the national features and the natural 
disposition of the two people being perfectly dis- 
tinct, and differing in every respect. Neither have 
they any mixture of Indian blood, being quite as 
fair as the southern Europeans ; even thoise who are 



M 



TO CHINA, 85 

" most exposed being scarcely so swartliy as the same 
class of society in Spain or Portugal. 

The Chinese language is learnt by a few, as the 
French is in our own country ; but the bonzes, 
who are also schoolmasters, teach the boys their 
native language, which is a dialect of the Japanese, 
and is rather soft and harmonious; and they have 
nothing of that hesitation in utterance, or appear- 
ance of choking, which is observed in the former, 
often requiring the action of the hands to assist 
the tongue*. The orders and records of govern- 
ment are in their own, or Japanese character; but 
they have books in the Chinese language. 

They bum the bodies of their dead, and deposit 
their bones in urns (at least in our neighbourhood), 
in na turah vaults, or caverns of the rocks along the 
sea-shore. The graves of the few Chinese resi- 
dents here are formed in their own style. 

Crimes are said to be very unfrequent among 
them, and they seem to go perfectly unarmed, for 
we observed no warlike instruments of any descrip- 
tion ; and our guns, shot, and musketry, appeared 
to be objects of great wonder to them. It must 
have been the policy of the Chinese to disarm them, 
for it appears that, in the first instance, they de- 
fended themselves nobly against their attacks, as 

* In Uiis respect the Chinese seem to resemble what is 
said of a Frenchman: — That if his hands are tied he cannot' 
speak 



/ 



$6 VOYAGE OP H. M. S. ALCESTE 

well as those of the Japanese. Not even a bow 
or arrow was to be seen ; and, when they observed 
the effect of fowling-pieces in the hands of some 
of the gentlemen, they begged they might not kill 
the birds, which they were always glad to see fly- 
ing about their houses ; and if we required them 
to eat, they would send in their stead an additional 
quantity of fowls on board every day.— An order 
was immediately issued to desist from this sort of 
sporting. 

The people of Tatao and the north-east islands 
are reported to have been in possession of books 
previous to the Chinese attack on Grand Lewchew, 
and to have been even more polished than in the 
principal island. Tatao and Ki-ki-ai are said to 
produce a sort of cedar, termed kien-mou by the 
Chinese, and iseki by the inhabitants, which is con- 
sidered incorruptible, and brings a great price, the 
columns of the palaces of the grandees being 
generally formed of it. 

The vessels of these islands, in the general ap- 
pearance of their hulls and plan of rigging and 
sails, are precisely the same as we had observed 
throughout the whole of our track from the Gulf 
of Pe-che-lee to Napa-kiang. They had in com- 
mon use, canoes hollowed from the trunk of a tree, 
much the same in shape as those of other parts of 
the world where they are employed, and of suffi- 
cient size to contain easily from six to ei^ht or ten 



TO CHINA, . 87 

people. For purposes of heavier burden, they had 
boats strongly built, and rather flat- bottomed. 

In these boats they brought our water, bullocks, 
and other stock, on board. The water was not 
sent in barrels, but in open tubs, and baled from 
these into our casks. 

During our stay here, the Lyra was detached by 
the senior ofiicer, in consequence of the people 
having told us that there was a closer and more 
secure harbour to the northward, to circumnavigate 
and examine the coast of the great island ; which 
service Captain Hall performed, and returned to 
Napa-kiang, in seven days. 

The state of cultivation was represented as very 
fine on a small island, which was named by cap- 
tain Hail Sugar-loaf Island ; and a town was ob- 
served, which had a very handsome appearance 
from the sea ; trees, as usual, filling up the inter- 
stices between the houses, which rose from the 
^atcr-side to the foot of the high land. 

About twelve miles easterly from this island 
they anchored near an islet, which was named 
Herberfs Isle; and from thence proceeded in the 
boats to examine what seemed to be the mouth of 
a river ; here it is reported there were not less than 
ten fathoms of depth within it, the whole passc.ge 
being narrow, and the direction tortuous ; in short 
they here discovered a harbour, not inferior in any , 
respect, and in some superior, to Port Mahon, in 



88 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

Minorca. The banks of this winding arm of the 
sea are high rocks, overgrown with climbing plants 
and flowers. It has, moreover, the advantage of 
Mahon of having a second outlet or communication 
with the sea : in short, it was discovered that an 
island in the mouth of a deep indent in the coast 
of the main island formed a circumnavigable pas- 
sage, with safe anchorage in every part of it, and a 
sufficient depth of water for the largest class of 
ships, with good holding ground. It was named 
Port Melville, 

In glens, formed by the opening of the rocks on 
its right bank, were observed several little villages, 
prettily situated ; and the inhabitants were found 
to be the same civil creatures as on every other part 
of the island. 

The north eastern parts of the great Lewchew 
would appear not to be so populous, and therefore 
not so much cultivated, as the south-western side, 
or Cheouli, a greater extent of forest land being 
noticed ; and on the western side also appeared to 
be the best and safest places for anchorages. 

A few days previous to our leaving the island, 
intimation was sent that a man of the first distinc- 
tion (said to be one of the princes, and nearest heir 
to the crown) intended paying a visit to the ship. 
He was carried down to the moutli of the little 
river, opposite to the anchorage, in a close chair, 
or palanquin, amidst an immense concourse of peo- 



TO CHINA. 89 

pie, who had flocked from all parts to this spot. — 
He embarked in great state, in their own boats, 
with their flags flying ; and was saluted, on his ap- 
proach to the ships, by seven guns from each, and 
received on board the Alceste with every possible 
respect and attention ; the rigging being manned, 
and the officers in full dress. — He was above the 
usual size of the Lewchews, and had rather more 
of an European countenance. His robe was of a 
dark pink-coloured silk ; the cap rather lighter, 
with bright yellow flowers on it. In his mien and 
deportment there was much dignified simplicity ; 
for, although his carriage was that of a man of high 
rank, it was totally unmixed with the least appear- 
ance of hauteur ; and his demeanour was, alto- 
gether, extremely engaging. 

As he passed along the decks, his own people 
saluted him by kneeling ; clasping the hands before 
their breasts and bowing the head. He examined 
minutely every thing about the ship, and seemed 
equally pleased and surprised with all he saw. After 
joining in a sumptuous collation in the cabin, he 
took his leave with the same honours as when he 
came on board, having previously invited the captain 
and officers to an entertainment on shore. The day 
appointed for this feast happening to be the 25th 
of October, the anniversary of our venerable sove- 
reign's accession to the throne, a royal salute was 

N 



90 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

fired, at sun-rise, by both ships ; at noon the stand- 
ard was hoisted, the ships dressed in colours, and 
another salute fired ; after which the boats, with 
their flags flying, containing the captains and every 
officer that could possibly be spared, proceeded 
into Napa-kiang. 

They were received precisely as on the fiarmer 
occasion, except that the number of grandees was 
greater, and there appeared a higher degree of state. 
The prince received the party at the gate, and 
conducted them into the hall. Three tables were 
laid close to each other ; the first for the great man 
and the captains, the second for the superior offi- 
cers, and the third for the young gentlemen. 
This prince, or chief, did the honours of his own 
table, occasionally directing his attention to the 
others ; but a man of some rank was added to each 
of them, for the purpose of seeing the strangers 
properly treated, as well as to pass and proclaim the 
toasts ; and for this purpose they were allowed to 
be seated, all the rest standing round the room, 
but, at the same time, joining heartily in the gene- 
ral mirth and glee. The healths of our king and 
royal family were toasted with much respect, and 
the anniversary of his majesty's accession was a 
day of real jubilee at Napafoo. The sovereign of 
Lewchew, the queen and princes, were proposed 
by our party ; whilst they (never deficient in po- 
liteness) toasted the wives and children of their 



TO CHINA. 91 

friends, the Engelees, In dining on board the 
ship, captain Maxwell had given confectionary to 
those who were married, in parcels, proportioned to 
the number of children they had ; and on this oc- 
cation they returned the compliment ; in the dis- 
tribution of which, it was quite amusing to see 
some of the young midshipmen acquiring at once 
wives and large families. 

Some personal presents from the captains were 
on this day offered to the chiefs, consisting of va- 
rious articles as before, adding some damask table- 
cloths, and elegantly cut decanters and glasses, 
which they seemed highly to admire. Specimens 
of their manufactures in cloth were sent on board 
the ships in return. 

At their departure, the prince attended the party 
nearly to the landing-place; and, when about to 
take his leave, two small additional presents (at the 
the suggestion of captain Hall) were given to him, 
as memorials. One was a very neat pocket ther-, 
mometer (the use of the larger ones having been 
explained to him on board), and the other a cor- 
nelian seal set in gold, with a riband attached to 
each : they were hung round his neck ; and the 
ceremony, being in public, had the appearance of 
investing him with an order, with which he seemed 
to be highly gratified. As the boats shoved off 
from the landing-place, the crews gave them three 
cheers, which they returned in their own style of 



9S VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

salutation. They had sent on board the ship a 
great number of coloured paper lanterns, for the 
purpose of illuminating her at night, in honour of 
our king. This was done after dark, the lanterns 
being regularly ranged along the yards and rig- 
ring, the main-deck ports illuminated, sky rockets 
thrown up, and blue lights burnt at the yard arms, 
bowsprit, and spanker-boom ends, with a feu de» 
joie of musketry, thrice repeated round the ship. 
The whole had a very brilliant effect from the 
shore, where tliousands of the natives had collected 
to view the scene . x\bout this time the boatswain's 
wife of the Alceste, who had been a good deal on 
shore, and was much noticed by the higher class of 
natives, had a splendid proposal made, by a depu- 
tation from some great man, to remain behind ; a 
grand house to live in, and all manner of finery 
and attentions ; great offers were also made to the 
boatswain to induce him to comply with this bar- 
gain ; but (after two days' consideration) the ne- 
gociation was broken off on the part of the husband, 
who refused to part with her. These proposals 
most likely came from the king, for it is not pro- 
bable that any subject could have entered into a 
treaty of this sort. 

A young lady of high rank, who had a great 
curiosity to see this Inago-Engelese^ or English- 
woman, was brought to her one day when she was 
quite alone, and walked round her for a consider- 



TO CHINA. 93 

able time, eyeing her with great appearance of 
surprise. 

The marriages of this country are not managed 
blindfold, as in China ; but the young people are 
permitted to make their own choice, and to com- 
municate without reserve. In China they would 
seem to have a superstitious dread of all foreign 
women ; so much so, that any ship, having one or 
mcM-e on board, must land them at the Portuguese 
settlement of Macao, before they are permitted to 
pass up the river ; as they fancy that their putting 
foot on the celestial soil would be attended with 
some great calamity to the country, or perhaps 
rather that their unrestrained liberty would be a 
bad example for their secluded females. 

The rocks about the coasts of Lewchew were 
all of the coral kind ; and immense masses, some 
assuming very odd shapes, were seen every where 
along the sea-shore ; and some of the same forma- 
tion were found on the higher land, and at some 
distance from the beach, whose situation is not 
easily to .be accounted for, unless we suppose them 
to i^ave been elevated by the force of volcanic 
fire. 

The period of our departure being now fixed, 
all the stores were embarked on the evening of the 
26th October. The next morning, as the ships 
unmoored, the Lewchews, as a mark of respect, 
arrayed themselves in their best apparel, and pro- 



94 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

ceeding to the temple, oiFered up to their gods a 
solemn sacrifice, invoking them to protect the En- 
gelees, to avert every danger, and restore them in 
safety to their native land ! In the m nner of this 
adieu there was an air of sublimity and benevolence 
combined, by far more touching to the heart than 
the most refined compliment of a more civilized 
people. It was the genuine benignity of artless 
nature, and of primitive innocence. Immediately 
following this solemnity, our particular friends 
crowded on board to shake hands ^ and say " Fare- 
well !'* whilst the tears which many of them shed, 
evinced the sincerity of their attachment. Even 
hard-faced Buonaparte was not unmoved ; and, asi 
the ships got under weigh', they lingered alongside 
in their eanoes, displaying every sign of affection- 
ate regard. 

We stood out to seaward ; and, the breeze be- 
ing favourable, this happy island soon sunk from the 
view ; but it will be long remembered by all the of- 
ficers and men of the Alceste and 'Lyra ; fiar, tiie 
kindness and hospitality of its inhabitants have 
fixed, upon every mind, a deep and lasting impres- 
sion of gratitude and esteem. 

Standing between w^hat had been termed Lyra's 
Reef (where she had been so nearly lost) and the 
Southern Isles, we pursued our course to the south- 
westward. On the next day we saw Typinsan, one 
of the most considerable of the Lewchewan group ; 



TO CHINA, 95 

and, on the 30th, descried Botel Tobago Xima. ve- 
ry much resembling, in its general features, St. He- 
lena. Passing to the northward of it, we discovered, 
on the same day, the island of Formosa. The 
south-east part (thai which we saw) is extremely 
high and mountainous, as, indeed, the whole of it 
is represented to be ; and with the wind atN. E., 
as we then had it, and blowing strong, the surf 
rolled in with dreadful force upon the reefs extend- 
ing from it*. Becoming too dark to see our way 
between the south end of the island, and the rocks 
of Vele Rete, we bore up, until, by our run, we 

* The western parts of Formosa are under the dominion 
of the Chinese, but the eastern shores are still occupied by 
the aboriginal inhabitants. They are stated to be in a very 
uncivilized condition ; that they can run with the swiftness of 
a greyhound: and are such expert marksmen with the bow 
and arrow, as to kill a pheasant on the wing with the great- 
est certainty. The water of the island is considered most itv; 
salubrious. 

Theii' mode of courtship is rather odd : when a young 
man fixes his affections, he hovers about the house where 
the object of his regard resides, and plays upon some musi- 
cal instrument, which signal she answers by coming out to 
meet him, and settle the matter, provided he is to her taste ; 
should it be otherwise, she takes no notice, the gentleman 
whistles in vai7i, and must try his fortune elsewhere. The 
bridegrooms here transfer their filial duty to their fathers-in- 
law, and in fact tre considered, after the marriage, as part of 
the wife's family. 



^6 VOYAGE OP H, M. S. ALCESTE 

were fairly to the southward of this danger, and then 
hauled to the wind on the starboard tack. The 
passage across the Straits of Formosa was boiste- 
rous in the extreme, blowing a severe gale at N. E., 
with that sort of tumbling sea felt in many other 
parts of the world, and which is infinitely more try- 
ing to ships than the long expansive swell of the 
wider ocean. The Alceste was a good deal injur- 
ed, and the Lyra had nearly foundered, the fore-top 
sides giving way, and sustaining other damage. 
On the 2d November saw the grand Lemma ; and 
on the same day pushed up to the anchorage, at the 
island of Lintin, without a pilot. Here we remain- 
ed unnoticed for some days, when a number of 
men-of-war junks anchored near us, and a manda- 
rin (their admiral) came on board, who, after the 
usual interrogatories, promised that a pass and pilot 
should be sent to us, to proceed up the river. In 
the time of Lord Anson, the Typa, near Macao, 
was of sufficient depth to receive the Centurion, a 
sixty-gun ship ; but, at the present day, no frigate 
of large size can with propriety enter it, having be- 
come much shallower from the deposition of mud. 
To have brought up the provisions and stores for 
the use of the ships, which had been left at that 
place (subject to the conjoined impositions of the 
Chinese and Portuguese), in hired vessels, would 
have been expensive : the Lyra, therefore, was or- 
dered down for that purpose. 



n 



TO CMNA. 97 

We soon began to experience the inveterate ill- 
will of the viceroy, Tsong-tou^ of Canton, who, 
well aware that the object of the embassy was in a 
great measure directed against his extortions, and 
those of his myrmidons, on our commerce, natur- 
ally entertained the most perfect hatred and detesta- 
tion for any ship attached to such a mission. The 
people of Lintin (no doubt by the influence of their 
superiors) dammed up the course of the water ; and 
it was not until sentries were placed along the little 
stream, to keep it clear, that we were enabled to fill 
our casks. The comprador, or the person em- 
ployed to supply ships with provisions and neces- 
saries, could only smuggle himself on board after 
dark ; and then hurrying away trembling, for fear 
of being found near us at daylight with his boats. 
His master (or partner), Aming, had very lately 
been tortured, imprisoned, and fined ; or, to use 
the Chinese phrase, squeezed in a very heavy sum, 
on suspicion that he knew of the intention of the 
captains of some Chinamen to proceed into the city, 
in order to present a memorial to the viceroy ; and 
that he had not given information of this circum- 
stance, that it might have been prevented. It 
seems the viceroy, in malicious feeling to the 
General Hewitt, because she had been connected 
with the embassy, would not permit her to load, 
under pretence that she was a tribute ship ; that she 
must wait to carry back the unaccepted presents, 

O 



98 VOYAGE OP H. M. S, ALCESTE 

and of course could have no room for teas. Had it 
even been intended diat she should carry back 
the presents (which was not the case, as, in the 
event of their not being received, they were to be 
otherwise disposed of), still they would not have 
occupied the tenth part of her tonnage ; and, be- 
sides all this, it was no business of the viceroy to 
interfere with the arrangements about the unaccept- 
ed tribute. Captain Campbell, therefore, attended 
by a party of his brother officers, and some of the 
gentlemen of the factory, on finding other measures 
vain, proceeded to make a personal application to 
the viceroy, and to present a memorial, stating the 
great hardship and unreasonableness of this prohi- 
bition. This bold manceuvre, however, was unat- 
tended with success ; and so far from the memori- 
al being received, they were treated with every 
indignity, the people spitting in their faces. The 
General Hewitt was guarded with more rigour than 
ever, being surrounded by war junks; and, previ- 
ous to our arrival, capt. Colin Campbell, of the navy, 
who, being unemployed, accompanied his brother 
in this voyage, with all who happened to be on 
board, were detained prisoners, at the second bar, 
for more than five weeks. 

On the 11th another mandarin came On board, 
who disclaimed any knowledge of the former, or 
what he had promised, stating, through the me- 
dium of an interpreter (who seemed himself a man 



TO CHINA. 99 

of some little consequence, and who evidently 
enjoyed peculiar satisfaction in repeating whatever 
was galling to the feelings of a Briton), that he had 
been making fools of us about sending a pass ; that 
the embassador, had been sent away in disgrace 
from Pekin ; that he must soon arrive here, when 
he would be immediately sent on board, and dis- 
missed with all the English ships from the country, 
and so forth ; adding that vvg must remain at our 
present anchorage, not attempting to pass up the 
river ; and even, during our stay here, it would be 
necessary to have a security-merchant to answer for 
our good conduct. The latter part of this rhodo- 
montade about a security-merchant for the king's 
ship, captain Maxwell begged might not be repeat- 
ed, unless they wished to be thrown overboard ; 
quietly telling them he would wait a reasonable 
time longer for the viceroy to send down a pass, 
or chop^ to proceed up the river, which he was 
desirous of doing for two reasons : 1st, The ship 
required caulking and other repairs, which it was 
impossible to accomplish in her present unprotect- 
ed and exposed situation. Next, the Lion, in the 
former embassy, had been admitted to a place of 
security ; and the emperor having, in the first in- 
stance, expressed his pleasure that the Alceste 
should have the same reception, it could only be 
considered an indignity to be excluded ; and would 
be a bad precedent. They now became a little 



lOO VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

more cool ; and, after some desultory conversation, 
took their leave : but previously captain Maxwell 
insisted on their admitting (to exclude them from 
all shuffling), that, if a pass was not sent down in 
48 hours, he was to take it for granted that leave 
was given. 

That day arrived without the least notice being 
taken of us; and the pilot who had come on board, 
in the hope of carr) ing us up, sneaked oft' in the 
dark, saying it was dangerous for him to have any 
connexion with us. 

Against an open attack a British commander can 
never be at a loss how to act ; but the present was 
a most trying and embarrassing case, and imposed 
a very heavy and serious weight of responsibility. 
That his majesty's ship should be supplied by an 
unauthorized individual under cover of night, and 
by stealth, was not to be endured ; to be denied 
admission to the harbour, and detained in an unpre- 
cedented manner, at this season of the year, in an 
open and dangerous road, could not be viewed but 
as an act of absolute hostility ; and to all this were 
added sneering insult and contempt of the most 
mortifying kind. 

To have waited longer for an explicit answer 
would have been vain ; for a Chinese who could so 
far forget himself, even in the most common occa- 
sions of intercourse, as to give a frank, ingenuous, 
and undesigning reply to any communication, 



TO CHINA. 101 

would be considered by his own countrymen a fool, 
and by foreigners a prodigy. 

They are a people, who, by early education and 
constant habit, are manoeuvrers, and always enjoy a 
much higher satisfaction in obtaining any purpose 
by fraud, trick, and overreaching, than by the most 
direct, candid, or honourable means ; and afford a 
strong exemplification of the distinction between 
low cunning and true wisdom. , 

On the other hand, the king's representative was 
in their power, and this circumstance rendered a 
decision on the case still more difficult ; but it was 
equally clear that the government which attempted 
to dishonour the flag would not respect the embas- 
sador; and experience has fully proved, that the 
tame submission of other nations has only added 
to the arrogance, and fostered the insolence of the 
Chinese. This, perhaps, was the impression on 
captain Maxwell's mind, when he got under weigh 
on the 12th ; but not a word was expressed. The 
examination, however, of the locks and flints on 
the carronades by the gunner, with a few other 
minor preparations, were hailed as auspicious 
omens, and excited the most pleasing hopes ; for 
the Chinese have no foreign friends ; every sea- 
man, whether of the navy or merchant's service, 
from experience of their faithless conduct, con- 
sidering himself in a state of warfare from the 
moment he enters their territory. We got up as 



lOS VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

far as Lankeet Flat that night, without a pilot; but 
Mr. Mayne, the master, who knew the ground, vo- 
lunteered to carry up the ship as far as she could 
go. Here we anchored for the night, and spoke 
the Cornwall Indiaman, bound homewards. 

About two o'clock P. M. next day we again 
weighed, the flood tide serving, and beat up, to- 
wards the Bocca Tigris, or Bogue, then distant a 
few miles. The Bocca Tigris is the mouth of the 
principal branch of that river, on which Canton is 
situated, and where it is contracted to about the 
breadth of the Thames at London ; but the banks 
are formed by high land, more especially on the 
east side. 

The fortifications on this pass were formerly in- 
significant, and allowed to remain in a very dis- 
mantled state ; but lately they have been repaired 
and strengthened with much care ; an additional 
battery of forty guns being built, rather farther up, 
and on the same side with old Annan-hoy ; a hun- 
dred and ten pieces of cannon, of different calibres, 
being at present mounted on these forts, including 
that of the island of Wang-tong opposite, the whole 
three being within half-gunshot of each other, with 
a garrison at this time of about 1,200 men. 

Chumpee, which lies in a corner farther down, 
has about twelve or fourteen guns ; but a ship may 
keep out of reach of them. As we advanced, some 
war-junks formed a line off Chumpee, and were 



TO CHINA. 103 

soon after joined by several more, making altogeth- 
er seventeen or eighteen. They carry, on an aver- 
age, six guns, with from sixty to eighty men each. 
About this time (five o'clock) the same loquacious 
linguist before mentioned came on board from the 
mandarins, and desired, in a high and domineering 
tone, that the ship should be directly anchored, and 
that if we presumed to pass up the river, the batte- 
ries would instantly sink her ; availing himself, at 
the same time, of that favourable opportunity, to 
express his personal se72se of low consideration for 
us, and plainly telling the captain he thought him 
very impertinent. The latter calmly observed that 
he would first pass the batteries, and then hang him 
at the yard-arm, for daring to bring on board a 
British man-of-war so impudent a message : his 
boat was then cut adrift, and himself taken into 
custody. The junks now commenced firing 
blank cartridge, which we returned with three guns 
from the ship, affecting to consider this as a mere 
salute. On the next tack we passed close to these 
warriors, who remained quiet until we got inside 
of them, and opened Chumpee ; when that fort, 
little Annan-hoy, and the junks (now under weigh), 
began to fire with shot. At this moment the wind 
becoming light and baffling, we were obliged to 
drop anchor in Anson's bay, in order to hold the 
ground we had gained, and that they might not 
suppose they had driven us back ; and in the act of 



104 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

wearing for this purpose, we gave the admiral of the 
junks a single shot only, by way of a hint*. They 
immediately ceased firing ; and their junks anchor- 
ing near us, all remained quiet until a little after 
eight o'clock, when a light breeze sprung up, 
which enabled us to lay our course, and the anchor 
was again weighed. The moment this was observ- 
ed by the junks, they beat their gongs, fired guns, 
and threw up sky-rockets, to give the alarm, and in 
an instant the batteries were completely illuminated, 
displaying lanterns as large as moderate- sized bal- 
loons, (the finest mark immaginable for us), com- 
miencing also a warm, but ill-directed, fire from 
both sid.es. Steering a steady course, the ship 
maintained a slow and regular fire, as the guns 
could be got to bear, without yawing her. 

From the lightness of the breeze, which the can- 
nonade seemed to lessen, it was a considerable 
time before we got abreast of the largest battery. 
At last, when within pistol-shot of the angle of it, 
and just before they could get all their guns to 
bear into the ship, a whole broadside, with cool 
aim, was poured in among them, the two-and- 



* This first shot was fired by the captain's own hand, that 
in the event of the Chinese demanding those who fired, in- 
stead of those who ordered, or of seizing upon any innocent 
person, he might fully place himself in the situation of 
being individually responsible for all consequences. 



TO CHINA. 105 

thirty pounders rattling the stones about their ears 
in fine style, and giving them at the same time 
three roaring cheers. 

This salvo was decisive at this particular point ; 
their lights disappeared in a twinkling, and they 
were completely silenced ; but from the island op- 
posite they still continued their fire, the balls which 
passed over and around us striking New Annan- 
hoy, which had thereby the fuU benefit of their own 
as well as our shot. 

Soon after this our point was gained ; and, 
standing up the river, we displayed our stern to 
these gentlemen. It is somewhat extraordinary 
that it should have been gained so easily ; for, 
notwithstanding we were nearly an hour wrangling 
in this narrow passage, not a man (on our side) was 
killed, the ship only hulled twice, and some trifling 
damage done to the rigging. Almost any Euro- 
pean gunners, with the same advantages, would 
have blown the frigate out of the water. During 
this affair, the flashing of the guns on the glassy 
surface of the river, and the rolling echo of their 
reports along the adjoining hills, had a very grand 
and animating effect. The Chinese linguist, who 
had crawled below when he saw matters taking a 
serious turn, and having observed there was no 
joking in the case, began in real earnest to think, as 
one part of the promise had been fulfilled, that his 
time had now arrived. Coming trembling upon 

P 



106 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

deck, he prostrated himself, and, kissing the cap- 
tain's feet, begged for mercy. At that moment, 
hearing the order given to " stand by the larboard 
guns for Tiger Island" (on which we then sup- 
posed there was a battery), he said, with a rueful 
countenance, " What ! no hab done yet?" " Not 
half done," was the reply : " How many guns have 
you got on Tiger Island ?" — but, without waiting 
to answer this question, (or indeed reflecting in 
his perturbation that there were none at all), he 
wrung his hands, groaned heavily, and dived again 
below. 

We stood on for some miles farther, and then 
anchored. — Next morning, before day, we found 
ourselves surrounded by their grand Jleet ; but they 
were wise enough to make no attack ; for, having 
now broken the ice, it was too late for half-mea- 
sures, and there was plenty of grape at hand to 
pick their teeth, had they offered the least molesta- 
tion. 

Half-measures seem to be a bad system in any 
dealings, but more especially with uncivilized peo- 
ple, for they are apt to attribute forbearance to 
fear, and acquire, under that impression, fresh 
courage. 

When the late admiral Drury was induced to 
make a show of force at Canton, but was withheld, 
by circumstances, from proceeding to actual hos- 



TO CHINA. 107 

tilities, there was no end to their gasconading ; they 
considered his retiring as a great victory gained, 
and it is celebrated as such by an inscription in one 
of their pagodas. 

On the morning of the 15th, the Alceste an- 
chored among the Indiamen at second bar, still 
attended, but with perfect respect, by their fleet. 

In the evening, captain Maxwell, attended by 
two gentlemen of the ship, proceeded in person to 
Canton to demand satisfaction (after having taken 
it) for the insult offered in firing upon the king's 
ship. On their way up they remained one even- 
ing with captain Campbell, of the Hewitt, and on 
that night, the news of the business with the bat- 
teries, having become public, much alarm was at 
first excited at Canton, as to the consequences of 
this measure ; but the next morning they were 
agreeably surprised by the appearance of several 
tea-junks alongside, with part of her cargo, the 
viceroy having given permission for her to load 
immediately ! — It also came to pass that the said 
viceroy thought proper to send down to the frigate, 
on this day, a high mandarin, attended by one of 
the Hong merchants, to wait upon the captain to 
welcome him into the river, and compliment him 
with all possible politeness ! 

It appeared, therefore, that the late head-thump- 
ing ceremony produced both tea and civility ; and, 



108 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

most probably, it is the only mode of Ko'towing*^ 
by which we will ever receive either, on reasonable 
terms, from the Chinese. They affect, in their 
usual disingenuous cant, to despise our commerce ; 
they say they could do perfectly well without it, 
and it is a mere matter of grace and favour that we 
are permitted to approach their shores, and carry 
on a trade highly to our advantage ; but, when the 
company's agents were lately driven to the neces- 
sity of abandoning Canton, of stopping the trade, 
and giving up all concern with them, having ac- 
tually taken their departure, struck the flag and 
flag-staff, and were on their way down the river, 
the Chinese authorities became alarmed, and sent 
after them to beg they would return, making such 
Cair promises as patched up, for a time, their dif- 

* Ko-tonv is the ceremony exacted from all ti'ibutary 
princes and embassadors on approaching the presence of the 
emperor, and consists in kneeling, placing the hands foi'- 
ward, and then knocking the head thrice against the ground. 
The fiatient now stands upright, and, by word of command, 
kneels and knocks again, and afterwards a third time, mak- 
ing, in allj three prostrations, and nine thumps : and this is 
required not merely in the imperial presence, but on receiv- 
ing any message, or donation of broken victuals, from the 
emperor, and was actually pei'formed by the Dutch embassy 
for some half- gnawed bones in 1795. (Vide Van Braam's 
own account.) So that a man, to be much about court in 
China, would require a skull as thick as a buifalo's. 



TO CHINA. 109 

1 ferences. Neither will they trade Iwnestly or say 
I at once there is an end of all intercourse ; and day 
j after day we are insulted and trifled with by them. 
The removal of our trade for a single year, and 
the appearance of a few of our lightest cruizers on 
their coasts, would throw the whole of this celestial 
empire into confusion ; for they are not prepared 
for the loss that would occur in the one case, nor to 
meet the tumult and convulsion that would be ex- 
cited by the destruction of their fisheries and coast- 
ing trade in the other. So feeble is their naval 
power, that, after warring with the pirates for many 
years, who chased their vessels up the river, and 
sacked the towns and villages within a few miles 
of Canton, they were at last obliged to compro- 
mise with them, bribing the whole to be quiet, 
and making their chitkjirst-chop mandarins. 

Krusenstern, the intelligent Russian navigator, 
who had occasion, in his voyage round the world, 
to touch at this port, where he experienced much 
vexation and insult, says, with great truth and pro- 
priety, what all equally feel, that " the forbearance 
and mistaken lenity of the greater civilized pow- 
ers have emboldened these savages, not only to 
consider as barbarians all Europeans, but actually 
to treat them as such." 

Captain Maxwell, on arriving at the city, sent in a 
strong note to the viceroy on the subject of his 
rudeness to the ship, which the latter answered by 



110 VOYAGE OF H, M, S. ALCESTE 

a letter yrom the Hong merchants to &ir Theophilus 
Metcalfe, the chief of the factory, who told the 
merchants, that, having no control over the king's 
officers, he neither could receive nor communicate 
it. The Hong people next applied to captain 
Maxwell personally, with their letter of explana- 
tion about the fracas that had occurred ; but he 
refused to receive them or their letter, on the ground 
that Chinese merchants were not the proper chan- 
nel of communication between him and the vice- 
roy. There the matter rested. The substance 
of this epistle was known to be some flimsy excuse 
about a mistake in sending, down the chop or pass, 
which not being received by the mandarins at the 
forts, they were obliged to act according to orders. 
But what shewed the barefaced effrontery of their 
assertions was their public account of the business, 
whilst in the very act of presenting this letter of 
explanation (for they affect to give a public account 
of all transactions), which stated that the affair at 
the Bogue was a mere chin-chinning or saluting 
matter, altogether. The first report, previous to the 
official fabrication, was forty-seven killed, besides 
a number of men spoiled^ (wounded), which pro- 

* Among these tvise and enlightened people^ if a man is 
materially sfioiled he must die ; for they neither will permit 
the necessary knowledge to be acquired for the performance 
of any operation, nor will they allow a stranger, who has 



TO CHINA. Ill 

bably might be near the truth, considering they 
stood rather thick ; but, after the appearance of the 
edict., it became a subject on which " no man can 
talk'^y . This is what the Chinese call " making 
face^'' or keeping up appearances, with respect to 
any circumstances they are desirous of having re- 
ported their own way ; and the people on the spot 
are literally ordered not to believe the evidence of 
their own senses, but to take the proclamation or 
edictf (as it is termed) for their guide, which is 
spread about in other parts, and handed down to 
posterity as good history, which no man dares to 
contradict. Few, it is supposed, will be credulous 

that knowledge, to save him, but at the risk of his own life ; 
as, in the event of the patient dying within forty days, from 
that or any other cause, the anatomist would certainly be 
strangled, or, if he had plenty of money, well squeezed, at 
least. 

* There was, however, a good deal of talk, sub rosa, up- 
on the subject, and the shot found in the battery having been 
sent up to Canton and weighed, they hai-yaived a great deal 
at what we termed our smaller ships, throwing shot of 25 
catties (321bs.) each, asking seriously about the probable 
consequences of the rejection of the embassy, and whether 
our larger ships could come up the river. The last ac- 
counts from China state that these feelings have rather in- 
creased than diminished. 

t Some how or other the word edict has crept into gene- 
ral use for any piece of common information, whether it is 
from the emperor, or has the force of a law or not. 



112 yOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

enough (who have ever been in China) to believe, 
that the people have the privilege of criticising the 
conduct of their superiors, and even of remarking 
publicly on the conduct of the emperor. The law 
which permits them to do so, may, indeed, be con- 
sidered as a very severe piece of irony on their ac- 
tual state. 

That the viceroy had an intention of insult be- 
yond the mere exclusion of the ship is rendered 
more than probable from the circumstance of a 
number of barges having been placed in the back 
passage to Macao, and not in the route of lord 
Macartney to Canton, which were removed from 
that situation immediately after the late occurrence ; 
and likewise from the general tenour of his con- 
duct throughout. Be this as it may, it would clearly 
have been a triumph to his cause, and that of his ad- 
herents, that the embassador should have arrived at 
Canton with as little eclat and appearance of res- 
pect as possible ; it would have added (as exterior 
is every thing with them) in the eyes of the Chi- 
nese, as well as foreigners, to the idea of disgrace 
and discomfiture to an obnoxious mission. But 
the advance of the ship to Wampoa not only com- 
manded as brilliant an entry for the embassy* as 



* That the Chinese did not join in it, is only an addition- 
al proof that they would have prevented it, had they dared. 



TO CHIN4. 113 

ever had been witnessed on any other occasion ; 
but, what was of equal importance, it sustained the 
dignity of the flag, and reduced the viceroy (after 
offering every insult) to the meanness of congratu- 
lating those who had defied his flotilla and batter- 
ed his fortifications. 

Canton may be considered the most interesting 
city in China. It is one of the first in point of 
size, and, perhaps, the very first with respect to 
wealth ; and here, as the native manners may be 
seen in all their purity as perfectly as in any other 
part, the traveller has also the advantage of viewing 
them as connected with Europeans, and of notic- 
ing their brightest efforts of imitative genius, which 
the encouragement afforded by the commerce of 
the place calls forth. 

The numerous junks and boats of all descrip- 
tions in motion upon the Tigris surpasses even 
the busy scene displayed upon the Thames ; for 
here the boats are the only residence of some thou- 
sand families, who live entirely on the water, and 
manage to obtain a livelihood, some by plying pas- 
sage, others by fishingand picking up floating articles, 
and not unfreqently by exercising their talents like 
our mud-larkers and river pirates. 

The appearance of the river at night, completely 

illuminated by the lamps and lanterns in all the 

j boats, has a very pretty effect. Infanticide is said 

not to be so common in China as was at one time 

Q 



114 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

believed ; but that it actually exists is not attempt- 
ed to be denied even by the Chinese themselves ; 
one of whom, on being interrogated seriously on 
this subject, readily admitted, without seeming to 
consider it as a crime, that they certainly did drown 
their children when they were so numerous as to 
be inconvenient to them ; but that boys might be 
exposed alive, and, if picked up, they became coo- 
lees or slaves. It would appear, therefore, that fe- 
male children are most likely to become the victims 
in this way, from being less useful to their parents 
when they grow up ; for the patriarchal law of Chi- 
na considers the sons as slaves of their father ; and 
he is entitled to sell them as such, should occasion 
require. The entertainments given by the Hong 
merchants at Canton to their European friends are 
considered to be very superb. Seldom fewer than 
a hundred people sit down in th6 great hall to din- 
ner, which is usually dressed in our style (although 
they have also their chop-stick feasts), and plenty of 
the best viands, wines, and fruits, cover the table. 
Bird-nest soup is also handed round as a great 
treat, to which the Chinese attribute very extraor- 
dinary and invigorating qualities. On us, however, 
it produced no unusual effect ; and we should not 
have known it from any other, had it not been point- 
ed out. These bird-nests, which are collected in 
the Sunda Archipelago, are rather expensive arti- 
cles, being purchased by an equal weight of silver. 



TO CHINA. 115 

Their composition is not yet exactly known, but it 
is some gelatinous substance, most likely of the 
vegetable kind, which the swallows pick up. 

During the whole of the entertainment, a play is 
performing on a stage erected at one end of the hall 
the subject of which it is difficult, in general, for 
an European to comprehend, even could he attend 
to it for the deafening noise of their music. By 
collecting together in a small space a dozen bulls, 
the same number of jack-asses, a gang of tinkers 
round a copper caldron, some cleavers and mar- 
row-bones, with about thirty cats ; then letting the 
whole commence bellowing, braying, hammering, 
and caterwauling together, and some idea may be 
formed of the melody of a Chinese orchestra*. 
Their jugglers are extremely adroit, and the tum- 
blers perform uncommon feats of activity. 

The Chinese government, with regard to religion, 
is tolerant. It appears to be in wordly concerns 
Only that it is tyrannical, and seems to be indiffe- 
rent as to what a man professes, provided he does 
not interfere in state affairs. Some one, calling 
himself a catholic bishop, was, a short time before 
our arrival, strangled in one of the provinces, being 



* Their softer music, employed at their weddings, and 
other occasions unconnected with the stage, is not unpleas- 
ing to the ear. 



il6 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

suspected of intermeddling with temporal matters, 
and promoting the late rebellions. Another was 
said to be under sentence of death on the same ac- 
cusation. 

They not only worship their own tutelary deities, 
but they are represented as making offerings to evil 
spirits, or, as it is vulgarly termed in this country, 
they " hold a candle to the devil," in order to avert 
mischief. They have not the advantage of any par- 
ticular day set aside for public worship, nor do 
they attend their temples congregationally. Their 
priests or bonzes are not treated with that reverence 
land respect which is justly and reasonably due to 
the respectable ministers of religion in all countries. 
They are otherwise free, however, from indecorum 
and irregularity, having no wild fanatics, such as 
exist in India ; they are not troubled with domi- 
neering spiritual inquisitors, as in some of our 
neighbouring countries ; nor have they any impi- 
ous quacks and mountebank preachers, abusing 
toleration and dishonouring religion, as in Eng- 
land. 

The Chinese are strangers to love : from the 
spirit of their institutions, w^hich unnaturally pro- 
hibit all intercourse between the sexes, that pas- 
sion can never be felt; and marriage is a mere 
cold-hearted bargain, conducted through the me- 
dium of some female agent, whenever a man finds 
it convenient to have a wife. As he never sees the 



TO CHINA. 117 

lady until he unlocks the door of the sedan chair 
in which she is brought home, the key of which 
is previously sent to him, he is of course very lia- 
ble to have tricks played upon him. — For exam- 
ple, more especially as polygamy is allowed, a man 
may have a wife sufficiently young to be considered 
his daughter ; should he want money, and the lady 
another husband (both very likely cases), or from 
any other reason should they wish to part, and 
think proper to act in collusion, she is sold as his 
daughter to another man, who is thus imposed 
upon by having a second-hand wife palmed off upon 
him, instead of a new one. The rigour of the law 
against offenders of this kind, which awards a very 
severe bambooing to all principals, aiders, and 
abettors, affords a proof that frauds of this descrip- 
tion are not unfrequent. 

With a people who still imagine the earth to be 
a plane, and China in the middle, with all her tribu- 
tary kingdoms around her ; who are equally unin- 
formed with regard to astronomy ; who, in the pro- 
hibition of the study of the human frame, preclude 
the attainment of the very basis of all medical 
knowledge ; and who, in fact, in every branch of 
natural philosophy, are equally ignorant, and re- 
solved to continue So ; it is evidently impossible to 
connect the term science in any shape or manner. 

The natural productions of the country, and 
their acquaintance with agriculture and the arts 



118 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

(as far as they have been able to advance for that 
glorious edict which stamped them perfect, and 
commanded they should not proceed beyond the 
bounds of excellence), have already been (and pro- 
bably may be again, with additional information) 
described, by those whose peculiar opportunities, 
as well as talent for observation, enable them to 
speak fully, and with precision, on those subjects. 
The government of China, however plausible it 
may sound in theory, is, by all that can be obser- 
ved in a transient view, and, by every concurrent 
testimony of residents in the country, most iniqui- 
tous and tyrannical in practice. The mandarins, 
and even the emperor, it is true, cannot boldly and 
openly chop off heads like a Turkish bashaw or 
the dey of Algiers : but they have the knack of 
rendering life very miserable, and assume the pow- 
er of bambooing, torturing, fining (or squeezing J, 
and every species of oppression short of death. 
The human kind can scarcely be more degraded 
than in China, for no where is power more diaboli- 
cally perverted. Their laws, with the exception 
of some absurdities (such, for example, of visiting 
mere accidental homicide with the same punish- 
ment as the most deliberate murder), read very 
well; and, were they duly and impartially adminis- 
tered, might be found sufficiently adapted (as all 
laws ought to be) to the genius and character of 
the people they are formed for ; but this is by no 



TO CHINA. 119 

] means the case ; briber}^ and corruption being so 
i connmon, as scarcely to be the objects of indigna- 
tion or remark. 

A few years since an affray took place (as usual) 
between some of the seamen of the Indiamen who 
were at Canton on leave, and the Chinese mob, in 
which one of the latter by an unlucky blow was 
killed. The Chinese authorities demanded blood 
for blood, one of the seamen having been seized 
and detained in the factory : this, however, was 
not tamely yielded to (as in the case of the inno- 
cent gunner, who was sacrificed in so cowardly a 
!| manner many years ago), but was resisted on the 
ground either of the aggression of the Chinese, or 
of a mutual inclination to fight, in which a man 
happened to be killed, without the least previous 
intention of murder. Fortunately the Lion, of 64 
guns, captain Rolles, happened to be there, which 
probably gave some weight to these arguments ; 
and the mandarins, having no objections to com- 
promise the matter for money, proposed that a cer- 
tain sum should be paid to them for the benejit of 
the deceased^s relations, and a slave could then be 
purchased of the Portuguese at Macao, who might 
be strangled in lieu of one of the sailors, and thus 
the law would be perfectly satisfied ! 

It may easily be imagined this proposal was not 
acceded to ; and, at last, after much discussion, the 



120 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

matter was arranged in some way or other with- 
out resorting to this horrible mode of expiation*. 

It is lamentable to observe that the institutions 
of any nation should have the effect of deadening 
every feeling of sympathy, and of exciting, instead 
of discouraging, " man's inhumanity to man ;" 
but such is the case in this country ; and when any 
one is severely wounded by accident, or falls into 
a river, or other situation of danger, he is certain of 
receiving no assistance from the by-standers, who 
will most probably take to their heels, in order to 
save themselves from being the last person seen 
near him. 

^About midnight, sometime in November, 1816, 
when the Alceste was lying at second bar, the 
shrieks of some people in the water were heard 
near the ship. The hon. Mr. Stopford, who had 
the watch, and another gentleman, collecting a few 
individuals who happened to be on deck, jumped 
into a boat alongside ; pushed off to their assis- 
tance ; and, directed by their cries, picked up, one 
after the other, three Chinese, who were plunging 
about in the river, which is here several miles 
wide. 



* Related by J. Cotton, Esq., of the English factory at 
Canton. 



TO CHINA. ISl 

It was a fine night, and a number of small junks 
were moving up under easy sail, several of whom 
passed within a few fathoms of these people who 
were bawling for help ; and although they could, 
without the slightest difficulty, have saved the 
whole, they continued their course, the crews 
standing upon deck, and viewing their struggles 
with the most callous indifference. 

On carrying the three men on board the frigate, 
it appeared they had been crossing the river at this 
place, in a little Sanpan^ or boat ; in which were, 
besides themselves, the wife and child of one of 
them ; and that this boat had been run down by one 
of the headmost junks, which passed on without 
taking the least notice, and regardless of their fate, 
although they had occasioned the mischief; the 
others coolly following their example ; when they 
were fortunately heard from the ship, and preserved 
by the boat. The poor woman and child, being 
unable to swim, sank, and were drowned. 

Before day-light these people got a passage on 
shore by a boat which happened to be passing near 
the ship, and in the course of the forenoon one of 
them returned on board with a cumshaw, or pre- 
sent, of three wild ducks, which he presented on 
his knees to the gentleman who had saved him, 
stating that, by the junk running over their sanpan, 
he had lost his wife and a bull child (his only mode 
of expressing a boy), and must himself with the 

R 



1S3 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

Other men have perished also but for the assistance 
we aiForded them. Pleased with this appearance of 
heart and gratitude, where so little was expected, 
some money and provisions were given him for his 
ducks, and he was allowed to bring on board fish, 
and other articles for sale, which, from becoming 
rather a favourite, soon enabled him to repair the 
loss of his boat. 

The Chinese, viewing them in every point, are 
assuredly a very singular race, and afford a melan- 
choly example of the perverseness of human nature ; 
exhibiting a people who have had for some thousand 
y£ars a dawn of civilization, which, from the ope- 
ration of the most narrow-minded principles, has 
never brightened into day. But for the presump- 
tuous folly of supposing themselves at the summit 
of perfection, and the absurd tyrranny of fettering 
the human understanding, by forbidding all innova- 
tion and improvement, China might and ought to 
have been at the present hour the greatest nation of 
the world. Instead of impotent and gasconading 
pretensions to universal supremacy, she might have 
enjoyed, from her early and local advantages, the real 
glory of being the seat of arts, literature, wealth, and 
power. 

What have the governors or the governed gained 
by this pretended non-intercourse, and stupid con- 
tempt of the rest of mankind ? The frequent change 
ot dynasty and constant rebellions tend to show that 



TO CHINA. 133 

tlic former have been by no means secure ; whilst 
the debased and humiliated state of the people suffi- 
ciently evinces that their sordid an I illiberal plan 
confers no benefit on the general mass. 

The Chinese, however, are not without their ad- 
mirers. Some attribute their suspicious meanness, 
knavery, silly pride, and other ill qualities, to their 
depraved mode of government, which narrows their 
ideas, by compelling their attention, and attaching 
importance, entirely to the observance of useless 
forms and ceremonies ; and by admitting of no de- 
viation from one contracted path, even in the sim- 
plest transactions of life ; and that, were it not for 
these shackles of the mind, they would be a gay, civil, 
industrious, and honest people. Perhaps there may 
be a good deal of truth in this argument, and it is, 
therefore, extremely unfortunate that some change 
does not take place in a system which produces 
effects so injurious to the reputation of mankind. 
Another, and very distinct class of encomiasts (of 
the true antediluvian school), affect to hold them in 
high estimation, solely on account of their unva- 
rying habits, and tenacious adherence to their ancient 
customs ; and as they are now, in all respects, pre- 
cisely what they were two or three thousand years 
ago, they venerate them as living monuments of 
former times, and as valuable specimens of the antique. 
In their present state, however, from whatever cause 
it is produced, few moderns will take their leave of 



124 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

them with sentiments of regard or estimation ; and 
even the most inveterate antiquarian, had he more 
concerns with them than those merely speculative, 
might be divested, perhaps, of some of his preju- 
dices. 

Of the embassy, we had heard nothing distinct- 
ly for nearly five months, except that it had not 
been received; and it was not clearly understood 
until its arrival at Canton, that the refusal to sub- 
mit to a humiliating ceremonial, considered as 
stamping it with a character purely tributary, was 
the cause of this failure ; and that a reception on 
the unconditional terms of the Chinese would have 
been deeemed more prejudicial to the objects of 
the mission than even a rejection by firm resis- 
tance. But these weighty matters are foreign to the 
subject of a mere simple sea- voyager, and will be 
so well described by those officially connected with 
them, as to render any farther observation unne- 
cessary. Although the viceroy of Canton was in 
daily communication with the legate, or commis- 
sioner, appointed to accompany the embassy through 
the country, yet he maintained a sullen silence as 
to the probable period of its arrival, making no 
communication that we might prepare for that 
event; and it was not until the 31st of December 
that a letter of old date, having been detained for 
some time, was put into captain Maxwell's hand, 
from lord Amherst, stating when the embassy 



TO CHINA. 125 

was likely to enter Canton, which took place on 
the following day, A procession of boats, consist- 
ing of the barges of the two men of war, those of 
the factory, the American consul, and all the India- 
men, who were very numerous, with their respec- 
tive flags, the captains and officers in full dress, 
and the boats' crew in uniform clothing, proceed- 
ed some miles up the river, where they fell in with 
the Chinese barges, having the embassy on board. 
This meeting was highly gratifying to both parties, 
after a separation of nearly five months, durmg 
which each had, in its respective route, observed 
many novel scenes, and encountered extraordinary 
occurences. 

Lord Amherst removing into his own (or the 
Alceste's) barge, a double line of boats was form- 
ed on each side, and in this order proceeded down 
the river, and was landed at the entrance of the great 
temple, on the Honan side, from whence he was 
conducted to his residence by a very numerous 
assemblage, who had collected to receive him. 
The apartments in this place had been fitted up 
with much taste, and great appearance of comfort, 
under the inspection of Mr. Urm.ston, of the fac- 
tory, and was by far the most commodious and re- 
spectable quarters they had met with in China. A 
temporary building, or wooden frame covered with 
yellow screens, and containing a chair of state, hav- 



1S6 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

ing also yellow ornaments and the usual insignia 
of the emperor, was erected in the principal square, 
for the occasion of the viceroy's interview with the 
embassador, in order to deliver the emperor's let- 
ter to the prince regent. This ceremony took 
place some days after the arrival of his lordship. 
The viceroy had been ordered by his court to 
make a speech to the embassador, on presenting 
this letter ( which speech had been in rehearsal for 
some months, and the subject of it publicly known 
through the medium of Portuguese translations) ; 
and it appeared that the ten our of this embryo ha- 
rangue was rather of an insulting nature, containing 
such expressions as " Your good fortune has been 
small ;" " You sighed after happiness, and were 
unable to lift your eyes up to heaven," i. e- to view 
the celestial emperor, and others of a similar kind. 
The preamble of this edict also stated, that there 
appearing to be no want of respect in the king or 
prince, who had sent over so many seas to pay 
him homage, but that the fault lay in the embassa- 
dor's not understanding the rules of true politeness; 
he therefore had accepted some trifling articles of 
the presents of the said king, and in return had 
bestowed precious gifts, agreeably to the maxim 
of Confucius, *' Take little, and give much ;" and 
that, " on the receipt of these gifts, the embassa- 
dors became exceeding glad, and expressed great 



TO CHINA. 1S7 

contrition * for tlieir conduct;" and went on to say 
" that the viceroy, on their arrival, was to give 
them an entertainment in compliance with good 
manners, after which he was to rid himself of them 
as soon as possible ; and should they again supplicate 
him to accept their presents, he was enjoined to say 
to them, " The edict has passed and cannot be re- 
voked ! the emperor can be troubled no more !" 
and so forth. As it appeared this intended address had 
been made by them matter of public notoriety, it was 
understood, that, in order to prevent any /ja/ai'er 
of this sort, a hint was given to the viceroy the 
day previous to the interview, cautioning him against 
the use of any improper language, as it might call 
forth replies which would be unpleasant. At the 
time appointed this meeting of ceremony took place, 
and was accompanied by the appearance of guards, 
music, and other attendants, there being much 
state observed on each side. 



( * A tolerably strong example oftliis sort oi face-making 

I occurred during the discussion about tlie performance of the 

I ceremony, in which the precedent of lord Macartney's not 

' having done it was brought forward, when the emperor de- 

j Glared, through his ministers, that he himself had seen his 

j lordship perform it ; and they coolly called on Sir G. Staunton, 

who had been page in that embassy, to vouch for the truth 

of the fact. — That he did submit to the Ko-tow is no doubt the 

face they have put upon it in all the records of the empire. 



1S8 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

The emperor's letter contained in a bamboo 
case, covered with yellow silk, was now taken 
from this throne, and presented to the embassador, 
who transferred it to his secretary ; and the persons 
on either side, who were (by previous regulation) 
allowed chairs, having taken their seats, and the 
usual unvarying number of complimentary ques- 
tions having been gone through, such as " What 
age are ye?" and some others of the same high im- 
portance, the viceroy began to state, through the me- 
dium of Mr. Morrison, who interpreted, '* By the 
favour of the emperor you have traded to this 
country for more than a hundred years, very much 
to your advantage." " Tell him," said lord Am- 
herstj " the advantage is mutual," This being 
done, the viceroy replied, " No, the advantage is 
very much on your side." *' Repeat to him," 
said his lordship, " that the advantage is strictly 
mutual." From the dignified and independent 
manner in which this was spoken (a manner which, 
of course, from his peculiar situation, and the diffe- 
rent style of those he had to deal with, he could 
have no conception of), and perceiving, also, 
a determination to repulse every thing border- 
ing on impertinence, he seemed to be quite awed 
and disconcerted ; the thread of his discourse was 
broken, and he got no farther on with this mighty 
specimen of altiloquence, than to say something 
about " the subject being a disagreeable one;" 



TO CHINA. 129 

when the embassador considering the public busi- 
ness ended by the presentation of the emperor's 
letter rose up, and, wishing him a very good mor- 
ning, retired in the same state as on coming to this 
hall of audience. 

On the 20th, every thing being ready, his ex- 
cellency left Canton on the forenoon of the 20th 
January, 1817, and was attended to Wampoa in 
the same style as on entering it, except that, in pass- 
ing the various ships in that branch of the river, 
each saluted with nineteen guns, the Chinese war- 
junks also saluting. It appeared that the viceroy, 
just as the embassador had embarked in his barge 
to proceed down the river, approached near in his 
boat,, and made a tender of a complimentary card, 
which was not accepted, it being deemed an im- 
proper time and mode of presenting it. On the 
21st the Alceste weighed and stood down the river; 
and, on the morning of the 22d, as we passed our 
friends at the forts, each battery fired a distinct 
salute, in honour of the embassador, as did the 
different war-junks ; and their whole military force, 
exchjsive of that in the batteries, vi'as drawn out in 
line in Anson's Bay, and fired a feu de-jole with 
their matchlocks. 

The ship answered all these in rotation, with 
three guns to each. On the same evening we an- 
chored oft' the city of Macao, and the next morn- 

S 



130 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

ing his excellency landed ; but here the ghost of 
the late queen made its way through the centre of 
the earth, (for we were now antipodes to the Bra- 
zils), and prevented any public attentions being 
paid to the embassador, because the accounts of 
her death had just arrived. The fact is, these poor 
people dare not, were they ever so willing, do any 
thing which they think may be displeasing to the 
Chinese, under whom they live in a state of mise- 
rable thraldom ; the latter having it in their power, 
and frequently resorting to the measure, of stopping 
their allowance of provisions whenever they display 
the least symptom of being unruly ; and in the 
present case it seemed to be the wish of the Chi- 
nese to have the whole management of the honours 
to the embassador ; a mandarin receiving him on 
going on shore, although within their walls, precise- 
ly as he would have done, had the Chinese flag, 
instead of that of the Portuguese, been flying there. 
Macao is stated to be a possession of little or no 
value to the crown of Portugal, and, under the cir- 
cumstances of its present tenure, certainly not one 
that is either honourable or independent. The 
cave of Camoens is the only object here which 
attracts the notice of a traveller, from its being the 
spot in which he composed his celebrated poem of 
the Lusiad. Camoens, certainly the greatest, and 
perhaps the only, Portuguese poet whose fame 



TO CHINA. 131 

ever extended beyond the boundaries of his own 
country, deserved a better fate ; and it is painful to 
think he died a beggar in the streets of Lisbon. 

On the 9th January, the embassador having re- 
embarked, we took our leave of China, steering 
for Manilla, the capital of the Philippines, or Span- 
ish India, where we arrived on Monday the 3d of 
February, but found it was only Sunday at this 
place, owing to the diftbrent routes by which the 
Spaniards and the Portuguese advanced to the Asi- 
atic seas ; the one by Cape Horn, the other by the 
Cape of Good Hope ; a circumstance which may 
produce an awkward effect on people newly arrived 
at Manilla ; — for instance, a stranger invited to a 
party on Wednesday, without at all reflecting on 
the way he came thither, might dress himself for 
the occasion, and make his appearance on Tues- 
day. The town of Manilla, from its peninsular 
situation, having on one side the sea, and on the 
other a deep and rapid river, with strongly-fortified 
ditches across the isthmus, ought to be, with a pro- 
per garrison, very defensible, for there are no com- 
manding heights in its immediate vicinity ; but 
their soldiers consist almost entirely of mulattoes 
and blacks, and seem to be in a very lethargic state 
of discipline. 

The Metees, or Mulatto women, who are a mix- 
ture "between the Spaniards and the natives, are re- 
markable for their symmetry of form and stately 



133 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

mien, and this sort of beauty is so universal as 
hardly to admit of an exception. The religion of 
the Indians under the immediate controul of the 
Spaniards is Christianity ; but at Mindanao and the 
other islands (of which there are more than a thou- 
sand), where they are governed by their own sal- 
tans, it is said to be a mixture of Mahomedanism 
with their original Pagan rifes. The banks of the 
river, as well as the lake from which it issues, 
called the Laguna de Bria (its nearest part about 
eighteen miles from die city), are represented as 
extremely beautiful, and abounding in tropical 
scenery. 

Thii. lake extends more than thirty njiles into 
the interior. Near its head are some remarkable 
hot springs, called " Los BaSos," or baths; but 
they seemed rather too hot for that purpose. 
iLuconia* is about four hundred miles in length, 
and two hundred in breadth ; and, were it made 

* Canada is said to have derived its name from the Span- 
iards, when they landed in that quarter, repeating the words 
" aca nada," or " nothing here" (meaning tliere was no 
gold to be found), which the Indians caught the sound of. 
Some similar occurrence appears to have occasioned the 
name of Lu§on. When Magellan's party first went on 
shore they found one of the native women beating rice, as is 
usual at the present time, in a mortar hollowed from the 
trunk of a tree, and, finding herself surrounded by strange 
men, she held up to them the large wooden pestle, calling 



TO CHINA. 133 

the most of, is fully capable of affording all the 
productions of either Western India or of the 
neighbouring Archipelago. 

It is so healthy, that the medical people have 
scarcely any practice, and complain that there are 
no " cnfermedades reynantes," or reigning diseases, 
such as the yellow fever, as it exists at the Havan- 
nah, Vera Cruz, Carthagena, and other settlements 
more (by their reckoning) to the eastward. This 
misfortune most probably proceeds from the very 
limited intercourse which Manilla has, compared 
to any of the others, with Europeans, or new- 
comersj the Spaniards who inhabit it being almost 
without exception Creoles*, and therefore assimi- 
lated, from their birth, to the climate. This re- 
stricted intercourse may be observed in there not 
being a single inn for the accommodation of stran- 
gers in the whole city of Manilla or its suburbs. 
Chinese emigrants are here in thousands, and are 
very industrious and money-making, being the 
chief artificers and traffickers in small matters, re- 
sembling the lower class of Jews. From their 
being found scattered about in all the Indian islands, 



out Looson, which is the native term for it ; and this becom- 
ing; a bye-word among the Spaniards, they named the island 
Lu^on, which has been modernized into Luconia. 

* Tl)is term does not mean a person having the least mix- 
ture of black blood, but merely a white born in the country. 



134 V0YA6E OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

they might indeed be considered as the Jews of 
the east, were they only half as honest. 

The Spaniards appear not to be fully in posses- 
sion of Luconia at the present day. They may be 
said, indeed, only to be masters of the ground they 
occupy in a military point of view, for, by their 
own accounts, it is not only dangerous to travel 
without an escort in the country, but it is not safe 
for a Spaniard to walk out singly after dark about 
the suburbs of Manilla. A day or two after our 
arrival, three of the natives, who had been concern- 
ed in the murder of a marchioness, were strangled 
before the porch of one of their churches. These 
people seemed to have been actuated not by a 
spirit of plunder, but of revenge, for some real or 
supposed injuries, as the deed was committed in 
the public square, by dragging her from the car- 
riage on her return home in the evening ; and in 
this way frequent assassinations occur. A gentle- 
man of the Alceste being in a party one evening, 
where observations on the murderous character of 
the natives were the subject of conversation, took 
occasion to observe that if such was the case it 
would be necessary to keep a look-out in going 
homewards ; but he was assured that, as an 
English officer, he had nothing to fear. " No, 
Senor, temen ustedes, pero matan a nosotros," 
" They are afraid of you, but they kill us." It 
cannot be fear alone that induces the natives to 



TO CHINA. 135 

spare the English officers, who certainly freely ex- 
posed themselves at times and in situations the 
most favourable for assassination, without suffer- 
ing the slightest injury ; and it is probable that a 
French, German, or any other transitory stranger 
might do the same ; for it evidently is to their own 
immediate rulers that this feeling of hostility exists ; 
and it is no doubt the result of their impolitic 
mode of governing. Such a state of things would 
render the Philippines a very easy conquest to any 
invading force in time of war ; but the court of 
Spain, at present, seems to have most to fear from 
those sentiments of independence which have ex- 
tended from Buenos Ayres to Manilla, and appear 
to be a point of union in which almost all classes 
are agreed, not excepting even the hierarchy. 

The celebrated and unfortunate Perouse, when 
at this place in his voyage of discovery, made the 
following remarks : — " Manilla is built on the 
shore of a bay of the same name, which is more 
than twenty-five leagues in circumference. It lies 
at the mouth of a river, navigable as far as the lake 
from which it rises, and is, perhaps, the most de- 
lightfully situated city in the world. Provisions of 
all kinds are in the greatest abundance there, and 
extremely cheap ; but clothing, European hard- 
ware, and furniture, bear an excessively high price. 
The want of competition, together with the pro- 
hibitions and restraints of every kind laid on com- 



136 VOYAGE OP H. M. S. ALCESTE 

merce, render ail the productions of India and of 
China at least as dear there as in Europe ; and this 
colony, although the various imports bring near 
800,000 piastres annually into the treasurj-, costs 
Spain 1,500,000 besides, which are sent there 
every year from Mexico. 

" The immense possessions of the Spaniards in 
America have not admitted of the government es- 
sentially directing its attention to the Philippines, 
which resemble the estates of those great lords 
whose lands lie uncultivated, though capable of 
making the fortunes of many families. I should 
not hesitate to assert, that a very great nation pos- 
sessed of no other colony than the Philippine 
Islands, and who should establish the best govern- 
ment of which they are capable, might behold all 
the European settlements in Africa and America 
without envy. 

" Three millions of inhabitants people these va- 
rious islands, of whom that of Luconia contains 
nearly one-third. These people appear in no res- 
pect inferior to those of Europe. They cultivate 
the earth like men of understanding ; are carpen- 
ters, joiners, smiths, goldsmiths, weavers, masons, 
&,c. I have walked through their villages, and ■ 
found them kind, hospitable, and communicative ; 
and, though the Spaniards speak of and treat them 
with contempt, I perceived that the vices they at- 
tributed to the Indians ought rather to be imputed 



TO CHINA. 137 

to the government they have themselves establish- 
ed." Speaking of no encouragement being given 
to labour, he states that " as soon as the inhabi- 
tants have the quantity of rice, of sugar, and of 
vegetables, necessary for their subsistence, the su« 
perflux is of no value whatever. In such circum- 
stances, sugar has been sold for less than a half- 
penny the pound, and the rice remained upon the 
ground without being reaped. ^ 

" It would be difficult for the most unenlight- 
ened society to form a system of government more 
absurd than that which has regulated these colonies 
for the last two centuries. 

" The port of Manilla, which ought to be free 
and open to all nations, has been till very lately 
shut against Europeans, and open only to a few 
Moors, Americans, and the Portuguese of Goa. 
The governor is invested with the most despotic 
authority; and the audiencia, which ought to 
moderate his power, is totally impotent before the 
representative of the Spanish government. In 
point of fact, though not by law, it lies in his 
breast to admit or confiscate the merchandise of 
foreigners whom the hope of advantage may have 
brought to Manilla, and who would not expose 
themselves to this risk but on the probability of a 
very great profit, ultimately ruinous to the consu- 
mers." It is undoubtedly as unaccountable, as it 
appears to be unenlightened, that a nation should 

T 



138 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

take deliberate measures to make a colony a bur- 
den to it, which is not only fully able to maintain 
itself, if permitted, but to enrich the mother coun- 
try. It seems almost equal to that of restoring 
the inquisition. 

The Spanish authorities here were marked in 
their attentions to the embassador during his stay ; 
and, on the 9th of February, having re-embarked, 
we got under weigh, bound homeward, and parted 
company with our consort, the Lyra, who proceed- 
ed from hence with dispatches for India. 

A course was now shaped to avoid the numerous 
rocks and shoals not well defined, which lie in that 
part of the Chinese Sea more immediately to the 
westward of the Philippines, and to the north-west- 
ward of Borneo ; and having by the ] 4th passed 
the whole, and got into the usual track for the 
passage of either the Straits of Banca or Caspar, it 
was resolved to proceed through the latter, as being 
more direct and less subject to calms than the for- 
mer, and considering them equally safe from the 
latest surveys and directions being on board, some 
of them by those who had personally examined 
them. At day-light in the morning of the 18th 
we made Caspar Island exactly at the time ex- 
pected, and, passing it, stood on for the Straits. 
As is customary in approaching any coast or pas- 
sage whatever, but more especially one that all are 
not familiarly acquainted with, the utmost precau- 



TO CHINA. 139 

tion was taken by keeping the leads going in both 
chains, men looking out at the mast-heads, yard- 
arms, and bowsprit-end, the captain, master, and 
officer of the watch, on whom the charge of the 
ship at such a time more particularly devolves, 
having been vigilantly on deck during the whole of 
the previous night and this morning. Steering un- 
der all these guarded circumstances, the soundings 
'exactly corresponding with the charts, and follow- 
ing the express line prescribed by all concurring 
directions to clear every danger (and the last dan- 
ger of this sort between us and England), the ship 
about half-past seven in the morning struck with a 
horrid crash on a reef of sunken rocks, and remain- 
ed immovable ! 

It was very soon indeed but too evident that 
any attempt to move her would be attended with 
the most fatal consequences ; for, on each side of 
the rocks on which she hung, the water deepened 
from ten to seventeen fathoms immediately around 
her; and, from the injury received, she must have 
gone down in a few minutes, had she forced her 
way over this narrow reef. The best bower an- 
chor was therefore let go, to keep her fast ; and 
the pumps were soon abandoned, being clearly of 
no avail. 

The boats were now hoisted out, and lieutenant 
Hoppner, with the barge and cutter, ordered to 
proceed with the embassador and suite, and all 



140 VOYAGE OP H. M. S. ALCESTE 

those not essentially required, to the nearest part of 
the island, which seemed about three miles and a 
half distant. Meanwhile every exertion was used 
by the captain and officers, who remained by the 
ship, to secure what provisions and stores could 
be obtained ; a task of considerable labour and 
difficulty, for all was under water, which now rose 
above the orlop-deck. 

When she struck the tide must have been rising, 
for towards the afternoon it fell outside, and conse- 
quently inside the ship several feet, thereby enabling 
us to save ourselves from absolute starvation by 
laying hold of some articles of provender which 
floated up, assisted by divers, and which the 
boats were employed in conveying to the shore. 
A raft was also constructed, on which were placed 
the heavier stores, with some baggage, and towed 
towards the island. By the return of those boats 
which carried his excellency on shore we learnt the 
very great difficulty of effecting a landing, the man- 
grove-trees growing out to a considerable distance 
in the water ; and it was not until after ranging 
along-shore for nearly three miles from the place 
they first attempted that a small opening appeared, 
through which, by scrambling from rock to rock, 
they at last obtained a footing on terra Jirma, 
Here, by cutting away a quantity of the smaller 
jungle at the foot of a hill (for the island was com- 
pletely overgrown with wood), a space was cleared 



TO CHINA. " 141 

away, where, under the shade of the loftier trees, 
they bivouacqued for that day and night. 

On board the ship the work went on with ac- 
tivity, endeavouring to save whatever might be 
most useful on such an occasion ; but, as the tide 
rose, the swell of the sea lifting her from the rocks, 
she dashed on them again with such violence, as 
to render it necessary about midnight to cut away 
the topmast. At day -light on Wednesday the 
19th, Mr. M'Leod landed with two men who had 
been severely wounded by the fall of the masts, 
and with a report from the captain to lord Amherst. 
The spot in which our party were situated was 
sufficiently romantic^ but seemed at the same time 
the abode of ruin and of havoc. Few of its inha- 
bitants (and among the rest the embassador) had 
more than a shirt or pair of trowsers on. The 
wreck of books, or, as it was not unaptly termed, 
*' a literary manure," was spread about in all direc- 
tions ; whilst parlimentary robes, court-dresses, 
and mandarin habits, intermixed with check shirts 
and tarry jackets, were hung around in wild con- 
fusion on every tree. 

On his lordship being informed that no fresh 
water had as yet been obtained from the ship, and 
that it was barely probable some might be got by 
scuttling the lower deck, he desired every body 
might be called around him, and ordered that a gill 
of that which had been sent on shore the day be- 



142 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

fore (what happened to be on deck in the drip- 
stones and water jugs), with half that quantity of 
rum, should be equally served out to every man 
without distinction, and, taking his own share with 
perfect good humour, afforded to others an exam- 
ple of calm fortitude, and a cheerful readiness to 
share in every privation, which never fails on such 
occasions to have a powerful and beneficial effect, 
more especially when that example is found, where 
it ought to be, in the first rank. 

Parties were now returning who had been search- 
ing for water in vain, every attempt to dig for it 
having proved fruitless, or being too near the sea, 
salt water alone had oozed into the pits. At one 
spot they found the skeleton of a man, and the 
horrid idea of his having died from thirst rushed on 
every mind. Those who went into the wood, on 
these excursions, were obliged to notch the trees, 
and leave marks as they advanced, in order to find 
their way back. In the forenoon captain Maxwell 
came on shore, to confer with lord Amherst on the 
best mode to be adopted in the perilous situation 
they were then placed. The boats were utterly • in- 
capable of conveying half our number any where ; 
and, as some must necessarily go to the nearest 
friendly port for assistance, captain Maxwell judg- 
ed it best that his excellency and suite should pro- 
ceed with a proper guard for Batavia, or whatever 
part of Java they could fetch, from whence vessels 



TO CHINA. 1-13 

could be despatched to bring off those who remain- 
ed behind. 

This being what is termed the north-west mon- 
soon, there was every UkeHhood of the boats reach- 
ing Java (the current being also in their favour) in 
three days ; and by this arrangement, which very 
happily was setded without loss of time, two grand 
purposes were answered, the nearest to the captain's 
heart, and his duty, viz., the immediate conveyance 
of the embassador and suite to a place of safety ; 
and, by their safety, ensuring more effectually than 
by any other means that of the officers and men 
who remained with himself upon this desert isle. 
It was thought probable that row-boats might be 
despatched from Batavia after the arrival of his ex- 
cellency, so as to reach the island (even against 
wind and current) in twelve or fifteen days ; and 
as Mr. Ellis volunteered to return with the first 
boat or vessel that shoved off to our assistance, an 
additional assurance was thus given, that, com- 
bined with the influence of the embassador with 
the Dutch government, no delay would occur in 
forwarding relief. After a short, and very slender 
fhe champetre in this wilderness (in which salt 
was viewed with the same horror as arsenic), his 
lordship about five in the evening, accompanied by 
the gentlemen of his suite, by lieutenant Hoppner, 
in command of the boats, Mr. Mayne to navigate, 
lieutenant Cooke, R, M. (with a party as officers 



144 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

of the guard, in the event of falHng in with any of 
the Malay pirates who infest these seas), Mr. 
Blair, midshipman, and Mr. Somerset (who had 
come to see the world a little), waded out to the 
edge of the reef, and embarked in the barge and 
cutter. They were in all forty- seven persons, and 
had with them a small stock of provisions, consist- 
ing of a side of mutton, a ham, a tongue, about 
twenty pounds of coarse biscuit, and some few 
Tnore of fine, seven gallons of water, the same of 
beer, as many of spruce, and about thirty bottles of 
wine. This was all that could be spared ; and be- 
ing deemed equal to sustain nature for four or five 
days, in which period they must either make the 
land, or be so disposed of as to require no provi- 
sions, it was considered sufficient. After pulling 
outwards a little way to clear all the rocks, they 
made sail to the southward, attended by the best 
wishes of every man of the island, and were soon 
out of sight. The number left behind was 200 
men and boys, and one woman. 

The first measure of captain Maxwell, after fix- 
ing a party to dig a well in a spot which was judg- 
ed, from a combination of circumstances, the most 
likely to find water, was to remove our bivouac to 
the top of the hill, where we could breathe a cool- 
er and purer aip; a place in all respects not only 
better adapted to the preservation of our health, 
but to otir defence in case of attack. A path was 



TO tJHlNA. 145 

eut upwards, and a party employed in clearing 
away and setting fire to the underwood on the 
summit. This last operation tended much to free 
us from myriads of ants, and of snakes, scorpions, 
centipedes, and other reptiles, which in such a place 
and climate generally abound. Others were em- 
ployed in removing upwards our small stock of 
provisions, which were deposited (under a strict 
guard), in a sort of natural magazine, formed by 
the tumbling together of some huge masses of rock 
on the highest part of this eminence. On board 
the wreck a party was stationed, endeavouring to 
gain any accession they could to our stock of pro- 
visions and arms, and to save any public stores 
that could be found. There was a communica- 
tion for this purpose between the shore and the 
ship whenever the tide permitted. For the last 
two days every one had experienced much misery 
from thirst : a small cask of water (the only one 
which could be obtained from the ship) was scarce- 
ly equal to a pint each in the course of that period ; 
and perhaps no question was ever so anxiously re- 
peated, as '* What hope from the well?" About 
eleven at night the diggers had got, by rather a tor- 
tuous direction (on account of large stones), as far 
down as twenty feet, when they came to a clayey 
or marly soil, that above being a red earth, which 
seemed rather moist, and had nothing saline in the 
taste. At a little past midnight a bottle of muddy 

U 



146 VOYAGE OF H. M* S. ALCESTE 

water was brought to the captain as a specimeny 
and, the moment it was understood to be fresh, the 
rush to the well' was such as to impede the work- 
men ; and it was necessary to plant sentries to ena- 
ble them to complete their task, and permit the wa- 
ter to settle a little. Fortunately about this time a 
heavy shower of rain fell, and, by spreading sheets, 
table cloths, &c., and wringing them, some relief 
was afforded. There are few situations in which 
tnen exposed without shelter to a torrent of rain 
would, as in the present instance, hail that circum- : 
stance as a blessing : bathing in the sea was also 
resorted to by many in order to drink by absorption, 
and they fancied it afforded relief. 

Thursday, 20th. This morning the captain, or- 
dering all hands together, stated to them in few words, 
that every man, by the regulations of the navy, was 
as liable to answer for his conduct on the present as 
on any other occasion ; that, as long as he lived, the 
same discipline should be exerted, and, if necessary, 
with greater rigour than aboard, a discipline for the 
general welfare, which he trusted every sensible man 
of the party must see the necessity of maintaining ; 
assuring them, at the same time, he would have 
much pleasure in recommending those who dis- 
tinguished themselves by the regularity and pro- 
priety of their conduct ; that the provisions we had 
been able to save should be served out, although 
necessarily with a very sparing hand, yet with the 



TO CHINA. 147 

most rigid equality to all ranks, until we obtained 
that relief which he trusted would soon follow the 
arrival of lord Amherst at Java. During this day 
the well afibrded a pint of water for each man ; it 
had a sweetish milk-and-water taste, something like 
the juice of the cocoa-nut, but nobody found fault 
with it* ; on the contrary, it diffused that sort of 
happiness which only they can feel who have felt 
the horrible sensation of thirst under a vertical sun, 
subject at the same time to a harassing and fatigu- 
ing duty. This day was employed in getting up 
every thing from the foot of the hill ; boats passing 
to the ship, but unfortunately almost every thing 
of real value to us in our present case was under 
water. We were in hopes, however, that, as no 
bad weather was likely to happen, we might be 
enabled, by scuttling it at low water, or by burning 
her upper-works, many useful articles might be 
acquired. ***••** 

On Friday (21st), the party stationed at the ship 
found themselves, soon after day-light, surrounded 
by a number of MiJay proas, apparently well armed, 
and full of men. Without a single sword or mus- 
quet for defence, they had just time to throw them- 
selves into the boat alongside, and push for the 



* It was hafifiily said, when mixed with a little rum, to 
resemble milk punch ; and we eodeavoured to persuade 
ourselves that it was so. 



148 VOYAGE OP H. M. S. ALCESTE 

shore, chased by the pirates, who, finding two of 
our other boats push out to their assistance, re- 
turned to the ship, and took possession of her. 
Soon afterwards it was reported, from the look-out 
rock, that the savages, armed with spears, were 
landing at a point about two miles off. Under all 
the depressi! .g circumstances attending shipwreck ; 
of hunger, thirst, and fatigue ; and menaced by a 
ruthless foe ; it was glorious to see the British 
spirit staunch and unsubdued. When the ordqr 
was given for every man to arm himself in the best 
way he could, it was obeyed with the utmost 
promptitude and alacrity. Rude pike-staves, were 
formed by cutting down young trees ; small 
swords, dirks, knives, chisels, and even large 
spike-nails sharpened, were firmly affixed to the 
ends of these poles ; and those who could find 
nothing better, hardened the end of the wood in 
the fire, and, bringing it to a sharp point, formed 
a tolerable weapon. There were, perhaps, a dozen 
cutlasses ; the marines had about thirty muskets 
and bayonets, but could muster no more than 
seventy-five ball-cartridges among the whole party. 
We had fortunately preserved some loose powder 
drawn from the guns on the upper deck after the 
ship had struck, (for the magazine was under 
water in five minutes), and the marines by ham- 
mering their buttons round, and by pieces of 
broken bottles rolled up in cartridges, did their 



TO CHINA. 149 

best to supply themselves with a sort of langrage 
which would have some effect at close quarters, 
and strict orders were given not to throw away a 
single shot until sure of their aim. Mr. Cheffy, 
the carpenter, and his crew, under the direction of 
the captain, were busied in forming a sort of abat- 
tis by felling trees, and enclosing in a circular 
shape the ground we occupied ; and, by inter- 
weaving loose branches with the stakes driven in 
among these, a breast-work was constructed, which 
afforded us some cover, and must naturally impede 
the progress of any enemy unsupplied with artil- 
lery. That part of the island we had landed on 
was a narrow ridge, not above musket shot across, 
bounded on one side by the sea, and on the other 
by a creek, extending upwards of a mile inland, 
and nearly communicating with the sea at its head. 
Our hill was the the outer point of this tongue, 
and its shape might be very well represented by an 
inverted punch-bowl : the circle on wliich the 
bowl stands would then shew the fortification ; and 
the space within it our citadel. 

It appeared by the reports of scouts, a short 
time after the first account, that the Malays had 
not actually landed, but had taken possession of 
some rocks near this point, on which they deposit- 
ed a quantity of plunder brought from the ship ; 
and during the day they continued making these 
predatory trips. 



150 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

In the evening all hands were mustered under 
arms, and a motley group they presented ; it was 
gratifying, however, to observe, that, rude as were 
their implements of defence, there seemed to be no 
want of spirit to use them if occasion offered*. 
The officers and men were now marshalled regu- 
larly into the different divisions and companies, 
their various posts assigned, and other arrange- 
ments made. An officer and party were ordered 
to take charge of the boats for the night, and they 
were hauled closer into the landing-place. An 
alarm which occurred during the night shewed the 
benefit of these regulations, for, on a sentry chal- 
lenging a noise among the bushes, every one was 
at his post in an instant, and without the least con- 
fusion. 

On Saturday morning (22d), some of the Malay 
boats approached the place where ours were moor- 
ed; and, with the view of ascertaining whether 



* Even the little boys had managed to make fast a table- 
Ibrk, or something of that kind, on the end of a stick, for 
their defence. One of the men who had been so severely 
bruised by the falling of the masts, and was slung in his 
hammock between two trees, had been observed carefully 
Jishing^ or fixing, with two sticks and a ^ope-yarn, the blade 
of an old razor. — On being asked what he meant to do with 
it, he replied, " You know I cannot stand ; but, if any of 
these fellows come within reach of my hammock, I'll mark 
them." 



TO CHINA. 151 

they had any inclination to communicate on friend- 
ly terms, the gig, with an officer and four hands, 
pulled gently towards them, waving the bough of 
a tree (a general symbol of peace every where), 
shewing the usual demonstration of friendship, and 
of a desire to speak to them ; but all was vain, for 
they were merely reconnoitering our position, and 
immediately pulled back to their rock. 
, The second lieutenant (Mr. Hay) was now or- 
dered with the barge, cutter, and gig, armed in the 
best way we could, to proceed to the ship, and re- 
gain possession of her, by fair means, or by force ; 
the pirates not appearing, at this time, to have 
more than eighty men. Those on the rocks, see- 
ing our boats approach, threw all their plunder into 
their vessels, and made oif. 

Two of their largest proas were now at work on 
the ship ; but, on observing their comrades aban- 
don the rock, and the advance of the boats, they 
also made sail away, having previously set fire to 
the ship, which they did so effectually, that in a 
few minutes the flames burst from every port, and 
she was soon enveloped in a cloud of smoke. The 
boats were unable to board her, and therefore re- 
turned. 

Here was a period to every hope of accommo- 
dation with these people, if, indeed, any reasonable 
hope could ever have been entertained on that 
bead. The Malays, more especially those wander- 



X 



152 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

ing and piratical tribes, who roam about the coasts 
of Borneo, Billiton, and the wilder parts of Suma- 
tra, are a race of savages perhaps the most merci- 
less and mhuman to be found in any part of the 
world. The Battas are literally cannibals. In 
setting fire to the ship, they gave a decided proof 
of their disposition to us ; but, although certainly 
with no good intention, they did merely what we 
intended to do ; for, by burning her upper works 
and decks, every thing bouyant could float up from 
below, and be more easily laid hold of. 

The ship continued iDurning during the whole 
of the night ; and the flames, which could be seen 
through the openings of the trees, shed a melan- 
choly glare around, and excited the most mournful 
ideas. This night also all hands were suddenly 
under arms again, from a marine firing his musket 
at what he very properly considered a suspicious 
character near his post, who appeared advancing 
upon him, and refused to answer after being re- 
peatedly hailed. It turned out afterwards that the 
branch of a tree, half cut through the day before, 
had given way, under one of a race of large ba- 
boons, who, we found about this time, disputed 
the possession of the island with us. At the well, 
where there generally was kept a good fire at night, 
on account of the mosquitoes, the sentries had 
more than once been alarmed by these gentlemen 
shewing their black faces from behind the trees. 



TO CHINA. 153 

They became extremely troublesome to some 
ducks we had saved from the wreck, (carrying them 
up the trees with them, and letting them fall down 
again when alarmed), which, on several occasions, 
left their little yard, and came up among the peo- 
ple, when the monkeys got among them, instinc- 
tively preferring the society of man for protection. 
On Sunday morning (23d), the boats were sent 
to the still- smoking wreck, and some flour, a few 
cases of wine, and a cask of beer, had floated up. 
This last God-send was announced just at the 
conclusion of divine service, which was this morn- 
ing held in the mess- tent, and a pint was order- 
ed to be immediately served out to each man, 
which called forth three cheers*. This seems to 
be the only style in which a British seaman can 
give vent to the warmer feelings of his heart. It is 
his mode of thanksgiving for benefits received ; 
and it equally serves him to honour his friend, to 
defy his enemy, or to proclaim victor}. This day 
we continued improving our fence, and clearing 



* Some decorously righteous man observing to the chap- 
jain tl\at he had never seen such a scene in Enghmd as the 
congregation cheering at the church-door ; the latter replied, 
with proper liberality (and tolerable good hunnour), " per- 
haps you never saw a thirsty English audience dismissed 
with the promise qf a pint of beer a piece." 

X 



154* VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

away a glacis immediately around it, that we might 
see and have fair play with these barbarians, should 
they approach. They had retired behind a little 
islet (called Pulo Chalacca, or Misfortune's Isle\ 
about two miles from us, and seemed waiting 
there for reinforcements ; for some of their party 
had made sail towards Billiton. 

Monday morning (24th), the boats, as yester- 
day, went to the wreck, and returned with some 
casks of flour only partially damaged : a few cases 
of wine, and about forty boarding-pikes, with 
eighteen muskets, were also laid hold of. With 
the loose powder secured out of the great guns in 
the first instance, Mr. Holman, the gunner, had 
been actively employed, forming musket cartridges; 
and by melting down some pewter basins and jugs, 
with a small quantity of lead, lately obtained from 
the wreck, balls were cast in clay moulds, increas- 
ing not a little our confidence and security. A 
quart of water each had been our daily allowance 
from the well hitherto, and on this day a second 
was completed near the foot of the hill, in another 
direction, which not only supplied clearer water, 
but in greater plenty; and we could now, with- 
out restriction, indulge in the luxury of a long 
drinkj not caring even to excite thirst, in order to 
enjoy that luxury in higher perfection. 

On Tuesday (25th), the boats made their usual 
trip ; some more cases of wine and a few boarding- 



TO CHINA. 455 

pikes were obtained, both excellent articles in their 
way, in the hands of men who are inclined to enter- 
tain either *' their friends or their foes." On 
shore employed completing the paths to the wells, 
ajid felling trees which intercepted our view of 
the sea. 

Wednesday (26th), at day-light, two of the 
pirate proas, with each a canoe astern, were dis- 
covered close in with the cove where our boats 
were moored. Lieutenant Hay, (a straight- for- 
ward sort of fellow), who had the guard that night 
at the boats, and of course slept in them, imme- 
diately dashed at them with the barge, cutter, and 
gig. On perceiving this, they cut adrift their 
canoes, and made all sail ; they rather distanced 
the cutter and gig, but the barge gained upon 
them. On closing, the Malays evinced every 
sign of defiance, placing themselves in the most 
threatening attitudes, and firing their swivels at the 
barge. This was returned by Mr, Hay with the 
only musket in the boat, and, as they closed 
nearer, the Malays commenced tlirowing their jave- 
lins and darts, several falling into the barge, but 
without wounding any of the men. Soon after 
they were grappled by our fellows, when three of 
them having been shot, and a fourth knocked down, 
with the but-end of the musket, five more jumped 
overboard and drowned themselves (evidently dis- 



156 VOYAGE OF H, M. S. ALCESTE 

daining quarter), and two were taken prisoners, one 
of whom was severely wounded. 

They had taken some measure to sink their proa, 
for she went down almost immediately. Nothing 
Gould exceed the desperate ferocity of these people. 
One who had been shot through the body, but 
who was not quite dead, on being removed into the 
barge, with a view of saving him (as his own 
vessel was sinking), furiously grasped a cutlass 
which came within his reach, and it was not with- 
out a struggle, wrenched from his hand : he died 
in a few minutes. The consort of this proa, firing 
a parting shot, bore up round the north end of the 
island, and escaped. Their canoes were also 
brought on shore, containing several articles of 
plunder from the ship. They appeared to be the two 
identical proas which set fire to her. The prisoners 
(the one rather elderly, the other young) when 
brought on shore, seemed to have no hope of being 
permitted to live, and sullenly awaited their fate ; 
but, on the wounds of the younger being dressed, 
the hands of the other untied, and food offered to 
them, with other marks of kindness, they became 
more cheerful, and appeared especially gratified, 
seeing one of their dead companions, who had been 
brought on shore, was decently buried. 

The Malays are a people of very unpreposses- 
sing aspect; their bodies of a deep bronze colour; 
their black teeth and reddened lips (fi*om chewing 



TO CHINA. 197 

the betel-nut and siri), their gaping nostrils, and 
lank clotted hair hanging about tlieir shoulders and 
over their scowling countenances, give them alto- 
gether a fiend-like and murderous look. They are 
likewise an unjoyous race, and seldom smile. 

The state of one of the wounds received by the 
Malay (his knee-joint being penetrated, and the 
bones much injured) would have justified, more 
particularly in this kind of field practice, amputa- 
tion ; but, on consideration that it would be impos- 
sible to convince him of this being done with the 
intention of benefiting him, and might have the 
appearance of torture, which it was not improbable 
might suggest the idea of amputation and other 
operations to them, in the event of any, or all of us, 
falling into their hands, it was determined, there- 
fore, to try the effect of a good constitution, and 
careful attention. A little shed was built, and a 
blanket and other comforts given to him, and his 
comrade appointed his cook and attendant. They 
refused at first the provisions Ave offered them ; but, 
on giving them some rice to prepare in their own 
way, they seemed satisfied. Never expecting 
quarter, when overpowered in their piratical at- 
tempts, and having been generally tortured when 
taken alive, may account for the others drowning 
themselves. 

In the forenoon, immediately after this rencontre^ 
fourteen proas and smaller boats appeared standing 



15S VOYAGE OF H. M. B, ALCESTE 

across from the Banca side, and soon after they 
anchored behind Pulo Calacca. -Several of their 
people landed, and carrying up some bundles on 
their shoulders, left them in the wood, and returned 
for more. We had some hope, from the direction 
in which they first appeared, as well as their an- 
choring at that spot (the rendezvous agreed upoa 
at the departure of lord Amherst), that they might 
have been from Batavia to our relief. 

The small flag (belonging to the embassy) was 
brought down and displayed on the look-out rock ; 
the strangers, each, immediately hoisted some flag 
at their mast-head. Anxious to know still more 
about them, Mr. Sykes was allowed to advance 
with the union jack, accompanied by some more 
of the young gentlemen, along the strand to a con- 
siderable distance ; and soon after some of their 
party, with a flag, set off" to meet them. As they 
mutually approached^ the Malays dropped a little 
in the rear of their flag-bearer, and laid down their 
arms ; ours also fell astern, and the two ancients (or 
colour men), wading into a creek which separated 
them, cautiously met each other. The Malay sa- 
lamed a good deal : many fine Yorkshire bows 
were made on the other side : shaking hands was 
the next ceremony, and then, joining flags, they 
walked up arm and arm to the place where the cap- 
tain and several others were stationed. Satisfied now 
they must be friends sent to our assistance, they 



TO CHINA. 459 

were welcomed with cheers, and every countenance 
was gladdened. But our joy was of short duration ; 
for, although their flag was laid submissively at the 
captain's feet, and all was sufficiently civil in their 
deportment, yet they turned out to be mere wan- 
derers, employed gathering a sort of sea-weed, 
found on the coast of these (but in still greater 
abundance among the Pelew) islands, said by some 
to be an article of commerce with the Chinese 
epicures, who use it like the bird-nests in their 
soups. All this was made out chiefly by signs, ad- 
ded to a few Malay words which some understood. 
Mr. Hay, with his division armed, proceeded 
down to their anchorage himself, and some other 
officers, going on board with their rajah (as they 
styled him), who expressed a great desire to see the 
captain on board, and sent him a present of a piece of 
fish, and some cocoa-nut milk. During the night 
many schemes were proposed as to the best mode 
of negotiating with these people. Some thought 
that, by tlie hope of reward, they might be induced 
to carry part of us to Java, and our four remaining 
boats would then be equal to the conveyance of the 
rest. Others, adverting to the treacherous charac- 
ter of the Malays, and the great temptation to mur- 
der us when in their power, from that sort of pro- 
perty still in our possession, and to them of great 
value, considered it safest to seize upon and dis- 
arm them, carrying ourselves to Batavia, and then 



160 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

most amply to remunerate them for any inconveni- 
ence they might have sustained from being pressed 
into the service. 

The morning of Thursday, the 27th, hovi^ever, 
perfectly relieved us from any further discussion 
on this subject, the rajah and his suite having pro- 
ceeded to plunder the wreck, which by this time 
they had espied. It is probable they were not cer- 
tain of our real situation on the first evening, but 
might have supposed^ fi'om seeing the uniforms, 
colours, and other military appearance, that some 
settlement, as at Minto, had been established there ; 
and this may also account for their civility in the 
first instance, for, from the moment their harpy -like 
spirit was excited by the wreck, and they saw our 
real condition, there were no more offerings of fish, 
or of cocoa-nut milk. 

To have sent the boats openly to attack them 
was judged impolitic ; it would only have driven 
them off for a moment, and put them on their 
guard against surprise by night, should it be 
thought necessary, in a day or two, to do so. 
They could deprive us of little ; for the copper bolts 
and iron work, which they were now most inter- 
ested about, v/ere not to us of material importance. 

We had the day before moved the boats into 
another cove, more out of sight (from the over- 
spreading branches of the trees), and safer in case 
of attack, being commanded by two strong litde 



TO CHINA. 161 

ports (one having a rude draw- bridge), erected on 
the rocks immediately above it, and wattled in, 
where an officer and piquet were nightly placed ; 
and a new serpentine path was cut down to this 
inlet, communicating with our main position aloft. 

On Friday, the 28th, the Malays were still em- 
ployed on the wreck. A boat approached us in 
the forenoon ; but on the gig going out to meet it, 
they refused to correspond, and return to their 
party. No relief having appeared from Batavja, 
and the period being elapsed at which (as was now 
thought) we had reason to expect it, measures 
were taken, by repairing the launch, and construct- 
ing a firm raft, to give us additional powers of 
transporting ourselves from our present abode, be- 
fore our stock of provisions were entirely ex- 
hausted. 

On Saturday, the 1st of March, the Malays ac- 
quired a great accession of strength, by the arrival 
of fourteen more proas from the northward (pro- 
bably of the old party), who joined in breaking 
up the remains of the wreck. 

At day-light, on Sunday, the 2d, still greater 
force having joined them during the night, the 
pirates (leaving a number at work on the wreck) 
advanced with upwards of twenty of their heaviest 
vessels, towards our landing-place ; fired one of 
their patereroes ; beat their gongs ; and, making a 
hideous yelling noise, they anchored in a line, 

Y 



163 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

^bout a cable's length from our cove. We were 
instantly under arms, the party covering the boats 
strengthened, and scouts sent out to watch their 
motions, as some of their boats had gone up the 
creek, at the back of our position ; and to beat 
about, lest any should be lying in ambush from 
the land. About this time, the old Malay prisoner, 
who was under charge of the sentries at the well, 
and who had been incautiously trusted by them to 
cut some wood for the fire, hearing the howling of 
his countrymen, left his wounded comrade to sjiift 
for himself, ran off into the wood, and escaped, 
carrying with him his hatchet. Finding, after wait- 
ing a short time in this state of preparation, that 
they made no attempt to land, an officer was sent 
a little outside the cove in a canoe, waving in a 
friendly manner, to try how they would act. Af- 
ter some deliberation, one of their boats, with seve- 
ral men armed with creeses, or their crooked dag- 
gers, approached : here, as usual, little could be 
made out, except a display of their marauding 
spirit, by taking a fancy to the shirt and trowsers 
of one of the young gentlemen in the canoe ; but, 
on his refusing to give them up, they used no 
force. 

A letter was now written, and addressed to the 
chief authority at Minto, a small settlement on the 
north-west point of Banca, stating the situation in 
which we were placed, and requesting him to for- 



TO CHINA, 163 

ward, if in his power, one or two small vessels to 
us, with a little bread and salt provisions, and some 
ammunition. Again the officer went out in the 
canoe, and was again met by the Malay boat. 
This letter was given to them, the word Min- 
to repeatedly pronounced (which they seemed to 
understand), the direction pointed out, and signs 
made that on their return with an answer they 
should be rewarded with abundance of dollars, 
shewing them one as a specimen. This was done 
more to try them than with any hope of their per- 
forming the service ; for, although a boat went 
down to Pulo Chalacca (where they appeared to 
have somebody in superior authority), yet none 
took the direction of Banca. Meantime their force 
rapidly increased, their proas and boats of different 
sizes amounting to fifty. The larger had from 
sixteen to twenty men ; the smaller about seven or 
eight ; so that, averaging even at the lowest ten 
each, they had fully five hundred men. The wreck 
seemed now nearly exhausted, and appeared to be 
a very secondary object, knowing the chief booty 
must be in our possession, and they blockaded us 
with increased rigour, drawing closer into the 
cove, more especially at high water, fearful lest our 
boats, being afloat at that period, should push out 
and escape them. In the afternoon some of the 
rajah's people (whom we at first considered our 
friends) made their appearance, as if seeking a par- 



164< VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

ley ; and, on communicating with them, gave us 
to understand by signs, and as many words as 
couid be made out, that all the Malays, except 
their party, were extremely hostile to us ; that it 
was their determination to attack us that night ; 
and urging also that some of their people should 
sleep up the hill, in order to protect us. Their 
former conduct and present connexions displayed 
so evidently the treachery of this offer, that it is 
needless to say it was rejected, giving tliem to un- 
derstand we could trust to ourselves. They im- 
mediately returned to their gang, who certainly as- 
sumed a most menacing attitude. In the evening, 
when the officers and men were assembled as usual 
under arms, in order to inspect them, and settle 
the watches for the night, the captain spoke to 
them with much animation, almost verbatim as 
follows : " My lads, you must all have observed 
this day, as well as myself, the great increase of 
the enemy's force, for enemies we must now con- 
sider them ; and the threatening posture they have 
assumed. I have, on various grounds, strong rea- 
son to believe they will attack us this night. I 
do not wish to conceal our real state, because I 
think there is not a man here who is afraid to face 
any sort of danger. We are now strongly fenced 
in, and our position in all respects so good, that, 
armed as we are, we ought to make a formidable 
defence against even regular troops : what then 



TO CHINA. 165 

would be thought of us, if we allowed ourselves 
to be surprized by a set of naked savages, with 
their spears and creeses? It is true they have 
swivels in their boats, but they cannot act here. I 
have not observed that they have any matchlocks 
or muskets ; but, if they have, so have we. I do 
not wish to deceive you as to the means of resis- 
tance in our power. When we were first thrown 
together on shore, we were almost defenceless ; 
seventy-five ball-cartridges only could be mustered: 
we have now sixteen hundred ! They cannot, I 
believe, send up more than five hundred men ; 
but, with two hundred such as now stand around 
me, I do not fear a thousand, nay, fifteen hundred 
of them ! I have the fullest confidence we shall 
beat them ; the pike-men standing firm, we can 
give them such a volley of musquetry as they will 
be little prepared for : and, when we find they are 
thrown into confusion, \ye'll sally out among them, 
chase them into the water, and ten to one but we 
secure their vessels. Let every man therefore be 
on the alert with his arms in his hands ; and, should 
these barbarians this night attempt our hill, I trust 
we shall convince them that they are dealing with 
Britons.'' Perhaps three jollier hun-as were never 
given than at the conclusion of this short but well- 
timed address. The woods fairly echoed again ; 
whilst the picquet at the cove, and those stationed 
at the wells, the instant it caught their ear, instinc- 



166 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

tively joined their sympathetic cheers to the gene- 
ral chorus. 

There was something like unity and concord in 
such a sourid, (one neither resembling the feeble 
shout nor savage yell), which, rung in the ears of 
these gentlemen, no doubt had its effect ; for about 
this time (8 P. M.) they were observed making 
signals with lights to some of their tribe behind the 
islet. If ever seamen or marines had a strong in- 
ducement to fight, it was on the present occasion, 
for every thing conduced to animate them. The 
feeling excited by a savage, cruel, and inhospitable 
aggression on the part of the Malays, — an aggres- 
sion adding calamity to misfortune, — roused every' 
mind to a spirit of just revenge ; and the appeal now. 
made to them, on the score of national character, 
was not likely to let that feeling cool. After a slen- 
der but cheerful repast, the men lay down as usual 
upon their arms, whilst the captain remained with 
those on guard to superintend his arrangements. 
An alarm during the night shewed the eftect of pre- 
paration on the people's minds, for all like light- 
rring were at their posts, and returned growling and 
disappointed because the alarm was false. 

Day-light on Monday the 3d, discovered the pi- 
rates exactly in the same position in front of us ; ten 
more vessels having joined them during the night, 
making their number now at least six hundred men. 



TO CHINA. 167 

" The plot began to thicken," and our situation be- 
came hourly more critical. Their force rapidly 
accumulating, and our little stock of provisions dai- 
ly shortening, rendered some desperate measure 
immediately necessary. 

That which seemed most feasible was by a sud- 
den night attack, by our four boats well armed, to 
carry by boarding some of their vessels, and, by 
manning them, repeat our attack with increased 
force, taking more, or dispersing them. The pos- 
session of some of tlieir proas, in addition to our 
own boats (taking into consideration that our num- 
bers would be thinned on the occasien), might ena- 
ble us to shove off for Java, in defiance of them. 
Any attempt to move on a raft, with their vessels 
playing round it, armed with swivels, was evident- 
ly impossible. Awful as our situation now was, 
and every hour becoming more so ; starvation star- 
ing us in the face, on one hand, and without a 
hope of mercy from Uie savages on the other ; yet 
were there no symptoms of depression, or gloomy 
despair ; every mind seemed buoyant ; and, if any 
estimate of the general feeling could be coljected 
from countenances, from the manner and expres- 
sions of all, there appeared to be formed in every 
breast a calm determination to dash at them, and 
be successful ; or to fall, as became men, in the at- 
tempt to be free. 



168 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

About noon on this day, whilst schemes and pro-, 
posals were flying about, as to the mode of execu- 
ting the measures in view, Mr. Johnstone (ever on 
the alert), who had mounted the look-out tree, one 
of the loftiest on the summit of our hill, descried a 
sail at a great distance to the southward, which he 
thought larger than a Malay vessel. The buz of 
conversation was in a moment hushed, and every 
eye fixed anxiously on the tree for the next report, 
a signal-man and telescope being instantly sent up. 
She was now lost sight of, from a dark squall over- 
spreading that part of the horizon, but in about 
twenty minutes she again emerged from the cloud, 
and was decidedly announced to be a square-rig- 
ged vessel. "Are you quite sure of that?" was 
eagerly inquired : — " Quite certain," was the re- 
ply : — " it is either a ship or a brig standing to- 
wards the island, under all sail ! — The joy this 
happy sight infused, and the gratitude of every heart 
at this prospect of deliverance, may be more easily 
conceived than described. It occasioned a sudden 
transition of the mind from one train of thinking to 
another, as if w^aking from a disagreeable dream. 
We displayed our colours on the highest branch of 
the tree, to attract attention, lest she should only be 
a passing stranger. 
. The pirates soon after this discovered the ship 
(a signal having been made with a gun by those an- 



T« CHINA. 469 

chored behind Pulo Chalacca), which occasioned 
an evident stir among them. As the water was 
ebbing fast, it was thought possible, by an unex- 
pected rush out to the edge of the reef, to get 
some of them under fire, and secure them. They 
seemed, however, to have suspected our purpose ; 
for, the moment the seamen and marines appeared 
from under the mangroves, the nearest proa let fly 
her swivel among a party of the officers, who had 
been previously wading outwards*, and the whole, 
instantly getting under weigh, made sail ofi', fired 
at by our people, but unfortunately wit' out effect ; 
for, in addition to the dexterous management of 
their boats, the wind enabled them to weather the 
rocks. It was fortunate, however, this circum- 
stance took place, and that it had the effect of dri- 
ving them away ; for, had they stood their ground, 
we were as much in their power as ever, the ship 
being obliged to anchor eight miles to leeward of 
the island, and eleven or twelve from our position, 
on account of the wind and current ; and, as this 
wind and current continued the same for some 
time afterwards, they might, most easily (with their 
force), have cut off all communication between us. 
Indeed it was a most providential and extraordina- 
ry circumstance, during this monsoon, that the 
ship was able to fetch so far up as she did. The 

* The shot was picked up by one of the young gentle- 
men, and appeared to be of malleable iron, not quite round. 

z 



170 V6YAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

blockade being now raised, the gis^, with Messrs, 
Sykes and Abbot, was despatched to the ship, 
which proved to be the Ternate, one of the com- 
pany's cruizers, sent by lord Amherst to our assis- 
tance, having on board Messrs. Ellis and Hoppner, 
who embarked the day of their arrival at Batavia, 
and pushed back to the island. 

The gig was able to return (being a light boat); 
but our friends, who attempted to pull ashore in 
the cutter, wTre compelled to put back, after 
struggling with the current for nine hours, during 
the night of Monday, and morning of Tuesday, 
the 4th. That day was employed in getting all the 
moveables we had saved from the wreck ready for 
embarkation. Wednesday, the 5th, landed Messrs. 
Ellis and Hoppner : — the recollection of the volun- 
tary promise made by the former at parting, now 
fulfilled, and re-appearing as a deliverer, added to 
the many interesting and peculiar circumstances of 
the meeting, gave a new glow to every feeling of 
friendship, and, on entering Fort Maxwell, they 
were received with heartfelt acclamation by the 
whole garrison, under arms. 

This fortification and its inhabitants had altoge- 
ther a very singular and romantic look. The wig- 
wams (or dens, as they were called) of some, neat- 
ly formed by branches, and thatched with the palm- 
leaf, scattered about at the feet of the majestic trees, 
which shaded our circle ; the rude tents of others ; 



TO CHINA. 171 

the wrecked, unshaven, ragged appearance of the 
men, with pikes and cutlasses in their hands, g'ave, 
more especially by fire-light at night, a wild and 
picturesque effect to this spot, far beyond any rob- 
ber scene the imagination can portray. 

Two of the Ternate's boats also arrived with a 
twelve pounder carronade, some round and grape, 
and musket ammunition, in the event of the pirates 
thinking proper to return before we had finished our 
business ; which, from the difficulty of communi- 
cating, required the whole of Wednesday to per- 
form. 

On Thursday, the 6th, the majority of the offi- 
cers and men embarked in the boats (now increas- 
ed in number), and proceeded to the Ternate ; the 
raft, also, with four officers and forty-six men (and 
a cow), got under sail, and, after a comfortable cold- 
bath navigation, reached the ship after dark. Eve- 
ry article which could not be carried off, and was 
thought might be of the slightest use to the sava- 
ges, was piled into a heap, on the top of the hill, 
and made into a bonefire. 

At midnight the boats returned to bring off cap^ 
tain Maxwell, and those remaining with him ; the 
whole arriving safe on board on the morning of the 
7th March. We were most hospitably received 
by captain Davidson and his officers*. 

* The wounded Malay was also carried to Batavia ; and 
he is now (although with rather a disabled joint) most prO' 
bably employed on board the Ternate. 



17S VOYAGE OF H, M. S. ALCESTE 

The island of Pulo Leat is about six miles long, 
and five broad ; situated about two degrees and a 
half to the southward of the equator : it lies nexfc 
to Banca, and is in the line of islands between it 
and Borneo. It is uninhabited, and, as far as we 
could explore (and exploring was no easy task), 
produces nothing for the use of man. We found 
a great number of the rinds of what we afterwards 
discovered at Batavia to be the far-famed and de- 
licious mangustin, which only thrives near the line; 
' — the baboons, who manage to live here, having 
monopolized all the fruit. Had we found any en- 
tire, we might have indulged in them, even with- 
out knowing their nature ; as, more especially in a 
case of short commons like ours, there could be 
no great danger in following the example of a 
monkey. 

The soil of the island would appear to be capa- 
ble of affording any production of the torrid zone, 
and, if cleared and cultivated, would be a very 
pretty place : the tree which produces the caout- 
chouc or indian rubber grows here. 

The small stock of provisions saved from the 
wreck, and the uncertainty of our stay there, ren- 
dered economy in their distribution, as well as the 
preventing any waste or abuse, a most important 
duty. The mode adopted by captain Maxwell, 
to make things go as far as possible, was to chop 
lip the allowance for the day into small pieces, 



TO CHINA. 17.3 

whether fowls, salt beef, pork, or flour, mixing the 
whole hotch-potch, boiling them together, and serv- 
ing out a measure of this to each, publicly and open- 
ly*, and without any distinction. By these means 
no nourishment was lost ; it could be more equally 
divided than by any other way ; and, although ne- 
cessarily, a scanty, it was not an unsavoury, mess. 
All the bread, except a few pounds, was lost. 
The men had half allowance of rum divided be- 
tween dinner and supper (sometimes more on 
hard fags), and the officers two glasses of wine at 
dinner, and a quarter allowance of rum (a small 
dram- glass) at supper. 

A small bag of oatmeal was found one morning, 
which some of the young Scotch midshipmen con- 
sidered as their 07vn, and sat down, with great glee, 
round a wash-hand basin* full of burgoo^ made 
from it ; but they reckoned too securely on the 
antipathies of their English friends, for (not think- 
ing this, perhaps, a proper time for indulging 
national prejudices) they claimed their share, and 
managed to get through it without a wry face. 

* Truth requires it to be stated, and it may naturally be 
supposed, that, among so many, one or two progging sort of 
people might be observed, wiio had no disinclination to a 
little more than their just allowance ; but the general feel- 
ing was much too manly and fine to admit of cot;tamination. 

* Not the only extraordinary mess-dish which tliis occa- 
sion had reduced some to. 



174 VOYAGE OF H. M. S, ALCESTE 

The guards at the posts, covering the boats, 
were generally under charge, alternately, of Messrs. 
Hay, Casey, Johnstone, Sykes, Abbot, Brownrigg, 
and Hope. The garrison duty^ at night, was con- 
ducted, in turns, by the surgeon, chaplain, Messrs. 
Eden, Raper, Mostyn, Stopford, and Gore ; thus 
making it light, and enabling them to keep their 
eyes open, and walk vigilantly round to observe 
that all the sentries were on the alert, and called 
out ever}' quarter of an hour ; the younger mid- 
shipmen being perched, in rotation, on the look- 
out rock during the day, to watch the motions of 
the pirates, and give notice of any ship or vessel 
which might appear in the offing. 

It is somewhat remarkable, that, during our 
stay here of nineteen days, exposed alternately to 
heavy rains, and the fierce heat of a vertical sun, 
none were taken sick, and those who landed so 
(some very ill), all recovered, except a marine, who 
was in the last stage of a liver complaint, contract- 
ed M'hilst in China, as one of the guard to the 
embassador. Another man, of very troublesome 
character, thought proper to leave his companions 
on the third day after landing. He may have been 
bit by a serpent in the woods, and died there, or 
have fallen into the hands of the savages ; but he 
was never afterwards l"ieard of. We marked with 
oil and blacking, in large characters, on the rocks, 
the date of our departure, to be a guide to any that 



TO CHINA. 175 

might come there in quest of us, and in the after- 
noon of the 7th, we bid adieu to Pulo Leat, where 
it is not wonderful that, in our situation, we should 
have suffered some hardship and privation ; but it 
is remarkable, indeed, that, surrounded by so many- 
dangers, the occurrence of any one of which might 
have proved fatal, we should have escaped the 
whole. We had, for example, great reason to be 
thankful that the ship did not fall from the rocks 
on which she first struck into deeper water, for 
then all must have perished; — that no accident 
happened to the boats which conveyed the embassy 
to Batavia ; for, in that case, we should never have 
been heard of ; — that we found water ; — that no 
mutiny or division took place among ourselves ; — 
that we had been able to stand our ground against 
the pirates ; — and that the Ternate had succeeded 
in anchoring in sight of the island ; which she was 
only enabled to do by a fortuitous slant of wind for 
an hour or two. Had we been unfortunate in any 
one of these circumstances, few would have re- 
mained to tell our tale. 

It is a tribute due to captain Maxwell to state 
(and it is a tribute which all most cheerfully pay), 
that, by his judicious arrangements, we were pre- 
served from all the horrors of anarchy and con- 
fusion. His measures inspired confidence and 
hope ; whilst his personal example, in the hour of 



176 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTfi 

danger, gave courage and animation to all around 
him. ^ 

We arrived at Batavia on the 9th, and, from the 
Ternate being so small, a number of our party 
crossed in the boats, which kept company with the 
ship. On the 10th we landed, and were most 
kindly received by lord Amherst, who converted 
his table into a general mess for the officers, as 
well as the embassy. Comfortable quarters were 
also provided for the men*, who, in a day or two, 
landed, and marched up there, with the flag which 
had been saved. They were met at Ryswick by 
his lordship, who accompanied them up. At 
Weltevreden, also, the officers met with a small, 
but choice band of their countrymen, whose soci- 
ety will not be easily forgotten, nor ever remem- 
bered without pleasure. 

A short journal of lieutenant Cooke describes 
the passage of the embassy across the Javanese sea, 
in the boats.- — " At seven in the evening of Wed- 
nesday, the 19th of February, all arrangements 
having been speedily made, the barge and cutter 
weighed, and pulled out to seaward, . there being a 
heavy swell across the reef ; — soon after made sail, 

* The hospitable houses of Messrs. Milne and Terino 
afforded lodging to the officers during their stay ; and much 
kind attention was experienced from captains Forbes, Dal- 
gains, Hanson, and M'Mahon, of the staff of sir William 
Keir. 



TO CHINA. 177 

and sounded in nineteen fathoms ; — kept more to 
the southward, having got into mid-channel ; — at 
nine at night, entrance point, in the island of Banca, 
bore west three or four miles. 

" Thursday, the 20th. — At day-light, the cutter 
in company ; moderate breezes at W. N. W., and 
fair, with a smooth sea ; high land of Banca bear- 
ing north ; — having been much crowded in the 
night, some shifted into the other boat, in order to 
equalize the numbers. At seven, served out, for 
the first time, some provisions : a small portion of 
fresh meat and biscuit, with a gill of water and 
half a gill of rum, to each person. At ten a heavy 
squall occurred, attended by rain, which enabled 
us, by spreading cloths, and wringing them, to 
catch a bucket of rain-water, affording, to each 
person, about half a pint. Light airs, and calm : 
occasionally found it necessary to pull eight oars, 
and, by the assistance of the marines, we had two 
reliefs. Spelled the oars every two hours. Served 
out provisions and grog in the usual small propor- 
tions. Lowered the sails, the wind being adverse, 
afterwards becoming calm, and at other times light 
breezes from the south-west : each person had 
about half a pint of beer. Lightning from west to 
south-west, — water very smooth, — midnight, light 
airs. 

" Friday, the 21st. — Moderate breezes from the 
^vestward, which soon became squally, and more to 

2A 



178 VOYAGE OP H. M. S. ALCESTB 

the southward, occasioning a swell of the sea. At 
seven o'clock served out the remains of the fresh 
meat, and the usual gill of water, and half a gill of 
rum. Examined stock after breakfast, and found 
remaining six gallons of water ; spruce beer, eight 
gallons ; rum, four gallons and a half ; beer, four 
gallons ; wine, nineteen bottles ; five ditto of addi- 
tional water, one ham, one tongue, and thirty 
J)ounds of bread. Served out, at twelve o'clock, 
some spruce to all hands. In the afternoon, serv- 
ed grog in the usual quantity. Continued rowing 
all night, and gave some spruce beer to the rowers, 
who began to be much fatigued. Wind variable 
from west to south-west. 

** Saturday the 22d. — Continued pulling all this 
inorning, the breeze being very light ; mustered 
provisions, and found them much reduced. At 
seven o'clock issued grog and a little bread to each, 
i-eserving a ham, the only meat now remaining, un- 
til dinner time. All the gentlemen who could pull 
relieved the rowers. About one o'clock a favour- 
able breeze sprung up at N. W. made all sail, and 
at half-past three o'clock saw Carawang Point, in 
Java, distant about nine or ten miles. At six 
b'clock the land-breeze coming off obliged the 
boats to anchor. Served out part of the ham, and 
a little biscuit and grog, as usual. At seven the 
wind moderated a little, and an attempt was made 
to row in ; but, the people being nearly exhausted^ 



TO CHINA. 17^ 

anchored again at nine o'clock ; the cutter having 
no grapnel, made fast to the barge. The night 
was fine, but a heavy swell occasioned the boat to 
roll extremely. 

" Sunday morning the 23d, the people having 
had some repose, and a little refreshment served out 
to them, weighed the grapnel, and pulled towards 
Batavia. Between the two points of land here, we 
accidentally fell in, although at a considerable dis- 
tance from the shore, with a stream of fresh water 
running into the sea, which put all in high spirits. 
To prevent any ill consequences, a little rum was 
put into a bucket, and every man drank about a 
pint. A favourable breeze also sprung up, and at 
half past ten o'clock we went along side the ship 
Princess Charlotte, in the roads, where we were 
very kindly received, our stock of provisions for 
forty-seven being at this time four or five pounds 
of bread, and (previous to falling in with the stream 
of fresh water in the sea), one gallon of water, one 
gallon of rum, and five bottles of wine, with some 
Madeira in ajar." During the whole of this little 
voyage the strictest equality was observed in the 
distribution of provisions; and if any distinction 
was made it was in favour of the rowers, those 
gentlemen who were unable to pull themselves 
taking a rather smaller proportion than those who 
did. 

The circumstance of the stream of fresh water, 



180 VOYAGE OF H. M. S.y ALCESTE 

which seemed so providentially to extend into the 
sea, and afforded so much relief, is found to exist 
in many parts of the world, and has been lately 
turned to advantage by our Toulon fleet, which 
was enabled to water at the mouth of the Rhone, 
almost without losing sight of the port they were 
blockading. 

Off the Mississippi, ships can water even out of 
sight of land ; and the same is stated to be the case 
with the Oronoco, in South America. This will 
most probably be found in all narrow-mouthed 
rivers, which burst suddenly on the sea ; and from 
the fresh being specifically lighter than the salt water, 
it naturally floats on the surface of the heavier body, 
and remains unmixed as long as the current re- 
tains its force. 

The chief discomfort of this boat- voyage pro- 
ceeded from being so crowded, and being obliged 
to sit so long in a particular posture, and the great 
distress arising from thirst. It was very difficult 
indeed to prevent the people from drinking salt wa- 
ter ; one man became delirious, and it was attribu- 
ted to this cause. It most probably, however, pro- 
ceeded from the extreme irritation occasioned by 
thirst ; for salt water, although an article of jnateria 
medica in very extensive use, has never been known 
to take the direction of the head. 

About the 21st March the ship Charlotte return- 
ed to Batavia, which had sailed in company with 



TO CHINA, 181 

the Ternate, having on board Messrs. Mayne, 
Blair, and Marrige. After beating against wind 
and current, from the 24th February to the 16th 
March, without being able to fetch farther than the 
south-east end of Banca, the current constantly 
sweeping them to leeward the moment they opened 
the Straits, Mr. Mayne, finding nothing was to be 
done in the ship, resolved to shove off in the barge, 
accompanied by the above gentlemen, and Mr. 
Thompson the supercargo, with two casks of wa- 
ter and one of beef for us, in the event of being- 
still on the island. They tugged at the oars until 
the next day, when, arriving in sight of the place 
we had occupied, they found a large flotilla of the 
pirates at anchor there, three of whom immediately 
gave chase to our boat. There was no time to be 
lost ; the barge made sail ; but, in addition to their 
sails, the Malays pulled furiously, and were gaining 
fast. The beef and water were now thrown over- 
board, to lighten the barge ; and, knowing whom 
they had to deal with, they prepared, being tolera- 
bly armed, to sell themselves as dear as possible. 
Fortunately at this moment a strong squall occur* 
red, which compelled the Malays to lower their 
sails, whilst the barge, carrying through all, got 
a-head and escaped, the pirates hauling their wind 
again towards the island. 

These proas were probably of the more distant 
islands, who, having only lately heard of the wreck, 



18S VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

had arrived a day after the fair, and were hungry, 
and annoyed at finding no prey. 

Nothing could exceed the deplorable state of 
Java at the period of its conquesit by the British 
forces in 1811. The natives had at all times been 
enslaved and oppressed by the Dutch colonists ; 
and, from the strict blockade of our cruizers, the 
produce of the soil which they were unable to ex- 
port was rotting in the warehouses, and reducing 
the latter to a state of bankruptcy. 

The system of government immediately intro- 
duced by lord Minto, under the able superinten- 
dence of Mr. Raffles, corresponding with that ex- 
isting in British (and what is here termed western) 
India, very much altered the state of affairs ; but it 
more especially ameliorated the condition of the na- 
tive Javanese. It had been usual to compel the people 
to labour at the public works, whenever occasion 
required, without any, or at least for a very inade- 
quate, remuneration. They were also obliged to 
deliver in a certain quantity of produce, often ex- 
ceeding what they were able to afford ; whilst they 
were tyrannically restricted to the cultivation of those 
articles only which best answered the purposes of the 
Dutch monopolists. By the new order of things these 
forced services were immediately abolished. The 
people were paid a reasonable price for their volun- 
tary labour ; and, instead of arbitrary and compuU 



TO CHINA. 183 

sory deliveries, encouragement was given to grow 
what were considered the most vahiable produc- 
tions of the island, and the Javanese were now 
stimulated to exertion by having an interest in the 
fruits of their industry. The revenue was now 
raised (except in one or two immaterial instances, 
which could not at once be conveniently altered) 
by a moderate land-tax on the whole. The rajahs 
or regents of the different districts were alloAved 
(and indeed preferred) a fixed salary to abandon 
their claims, to the former harsh method of raising 
their incomes, whilst they were still intrusted un- 
der proper surveillance with the administration of 
the laws, which were also new- modelled and ren- 
dered more equitable, torture being abolished, and 
the instruments burnt in the public square. The 
Chinese farmers of revenue, employed under the 
Dutch, who possessed peculiar ingenuity in squeez- 
ing the natives, were either removed, or their con- 
duct narrowly inspected by the British residents*. 

* Sir T. Raffles, in his elaborate work on Java, states, 
" that whenever the Chinese formed extensive settlements 
in Java, the native inhabitants had no alternative but that of 
abandoning the district, or of becoming slaves of the soil. 
Their monopolizing spirit was often even pernicious to the 
produce, as may be seen even at this day in the immediate 
vicinity of Batavia, where all the public markets are farmed 
by them, and the degeneracy and poverty of the lower clas- 
ses are proverbial." 



184 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

In Java there is no interruption to the course of 
vegetation. The spring is eternal ; and it is quite 
usual on the same day to see them sowing in one 
field, the second in half blossom, and reaping in the 
third. But with all these advantages of soil and 
climate the people had been driven to relinquish 
their native villages, and even to destroy the trees 
which the cruel impolicy of the whites compelled 
them to cultivate equally against their interest and 
their inclination. 

In the first settlement of colonies, it is notorious 
that enormities were committed by all Europeans 
on the aborigines of the country ; but without flat- 
tering our amour propre national, this unconcilia- 
tory and overbearing system seems to have been 
far less practised by us than by other nations, if 
we may judge from the comparative personal secu- 
rity with which a Briton roams every where at 
large. Previous to our possession of Java (when 
travelling became even more safe than in England), 
no Dutchman ever ventured to undertake a journey 
among the natives without a guard. The same is 
the case with the Portuguese and the original 
Brazilians, as well as the Spaniards at Manilla, and 
throughout the whole island of Luconia. 

With the Javanese harsh and rigorous measures 
seem, and indeed have been clearly proved to be, 
as unnecessary as they are unjustifiable, for few 
people bear a more mild, docile, or inoffensive 



TO CHINA. 185 

character. They are a distinct race from the Ma- 
lays of the coasts, not only speaking a different 
language, but are anxious not to be confounded 
with them. Lord Minto, who was at Java at the 
period of its falling into our possession, made the 
following observations on the existing state of af- 
fairs, and the alterations he judged necessary : — 

" Contingents of rice, and, indeed, of other pro- 
ductions, have been hitherto required of the culti- 
vators, by government, at an arbitrary rate ; this, 
also, is a vicious system, to be abandoned as soon 
as possible. The system of contingents did not 
arise from the mere solicitude for the people, but 
was a measure alone of finance and control, to en- 
able government to derive a revenue from a high 
price im})osed on the consumer, and to keep the 
whole body of the people dependent on its pleasure 
for subsistence. I recommend a radical reform in 
this branch to the serious and early attention of 
government. The principle of encouraging indus- 
try in the cultivation and improvement of lands, by 
creating an interest in the effort and fruits of that 
industry, can be expected in Java only by a funda- 
mental change of the whole system of landed pro- 
perty and tenure. A wide field, but a somewhat 
distant one, is open to this great and interesting im- 
provement ; the discussion of the subject, how- 
ever, must necessarily be delayed till the investiga- 
tion it requires is more complete. I shall transmit 

2B 



186 VOYAGE OP H. M. S. ALCESTE 

such thoughts as I have entertained, and such hopes 
as I have indulged, on this grand object of amelio- 
ration ; but I am to request the aid of all the in- 
formation, and all the lights, that this island can 
afford. On this branch, nothing must be done 
that is not mature, because the change is too ex- 
tensive to be suddenly or ignorantly attempted. 
But fixed and immutable principles of the human 
character, and of human association, assure me of 
ultimate, and, I hope, not remote, success, in views 
that are consonant with every motive of action that 
operates on man, and are justified by the practice 
and experience of every flourishing country of the 
world." 

The wisdom and sound policy of these liberal 
and enlightened views have been fully proved by 
the increasing happiness and prosperity of the colo- 
ny, from the day they were practically adopted, up 
to the period of the transfer of the island ; and that 
the same system should be continued under the 
restored government appears to be the decided 
opinion of the wisest and most clear-sighted of the 
Dutch colonists ; as well for its obvious justice 
and humanity, as from a conviction of its superior 
efficacy in every other respect. 

At the same time measures were taken to abo- 
lish slavery, for the continuance of which, in Java, 
there appeared not even the plea of expediency. 
The farther importation of slaves was forbidden 



TO CHINA. 187 

(For they were generally brought, for obvious rea- 
sons, from the neighbouring islands), and regula- 
tions were formed for the protection and better 
treatment of those actually existing. They were 
not allowed, for instance, to be sold or transferred 
from one master to another, but with their own 
approbation ; they were permitted the right of ac- 
quiring property either by their own industry, or 
from the gifts of others, independent of the con- 
trol of their masters, which they might appropriate, 
if they thought proper, after a certain term, to the 
purchase of their freedom, at a reasonable valuation, 
subject to the approval of a magistrate. An annual 
registry of each slave was also required, and a tax 
laid upon that registry, the proceeds of which 
were applied to charitable purposes ; and, in any 
instance where this registry was omitted to be 
given in, the slave was declared free. 

Although their present religion is that of Ma- 
homet (with a mixture of Paganism), yet the nu- 
merous relics of Hinduism, in high preservation 
throughout the island, evidently shew that the latter 
was the original mode of worship. Indeed, Balli, 
one of the neighbouring islands, performs the Hin- 
du rites at this day. 

Batavia is considered, and with much reason, 
as one of the most unhealthy spots in the world. 
But this character is applicable only to the town 
itself ; which, agreeably to Dutch usage, wherever 



188 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

they could find one, is built in a swamp. The 
effect of this, within seven degrees of the equator, 
is precisely what rtiight be expected ; but at Rys- 
wick and Weltevreden, where the ground rises, 
certainly, not above a dozen or fifteen feet, and 
situated within three miles of the town, health is 
retained, at least, as perfectly as in any other part 
of India ; and it has been even said that a battalion 
of a regiment quartered there has returned a smaller 
sick report than the other, stationed in some part of 
England. No European, who can possibly avoid 
it, ever sleeps in the city ; but, after transacting his 
business, removes to the neighbourhood. Among 
seamen and soldiers, a night or two spent in Bata- 
via is deemed mortal ; but this increased fatality 
among them proceeds evidently from their never 
sleeping there but for the express purpose of get- 
ting drunk ; and, when immersion in putrid and 
marsh effluvia, in so hot a climate, is applied to a 
body, rendered highly susceptible of their impres- 
sion from previous ebriety, it is not to be wonder- 
ed that a fever of the worst class should be the 
consequence. They are also not so likely, in these 
cases, to receive that prompt assistance which alone 
can save them ; for, conscious of having been irre- 
gular in their conduct, they are ashamed and un- 
willing to make application until it is Often too 
late ; and the loss of a single day will, in severer 
Casies, be attended, in all probability, with the most 



TO CHINA. 189 

dangerous consequences*. The insalubrity of 
Batavia is attributed, but with little appearance of 
justice, to the numerous canals which intersect the 
town ; for they rather seem to do good, by acting 
as drains, in a marshy soil ; and, if they are the re- 
ceptacles of filth and carcasses (which appeared not 
to be the case), it is the fault of the police, and not 
of the canals. Rice-fields, creating an artificial 
swamp, in addition to the natural moisture of the 
ground, certainly ought not to be permitted to exist 
in the immediate vicinity of a populous city ; and 
cannot be at all necessary in a country, two-thirds 
of which is uncultivated. 

The climate of Java may be varied at pleasure, 
from the suffocating heat of Bantam, or Batavia, to 
the cool, and even keen, air of the mountains, where 
fires and blankets are necessary ; which, to invalids 
requiring an immediate change of temperature, is 
an advantage of the highest importance. 

It is extraordinary how defective all colonies are 
in seminaries of education ; — a defect, more espe- 

* Captain Charles Ross, of the Pique, in the West Indies, 
among other judicious regulations of that excellent officer 
(whose orders were neither multiplied nor confused, and, for 
that reason, more likely to be rational), always considered a 
man found drunk to be an object for the surgeon's imme- 
diate care, in the first instance ; and it is astonishing the 
good effect this had, not only in preventing drunkenness, but 
in obviating its effects. 



190 VOYAGE OF H. M. S, ALCESTE 

cially in those that are extensive and populous, for- 
which there can be no good excuse, and is attend- 
ed with much inconvenience ; for either the youth 
of both sexes receive no education at all, or must 
be sent home, at a great expense, for that purpose. 
This would appear to be much the case at Batavia, 
for the young men required to fill situations of re- 
sponsibility must be supplied by fresh importations ; 
^nd the ladies, surrounded by a crowd of flattering 
slave- girls, generally creolize^ the whole day in a 
delectable state of apathy, without any sort of oc- 
cupation ; at sun-set, perhaps, taking a short air- 
ing in the environs. The elder dames inveterate- 
ly adhere to the kuhaya (a loose sort of gown, or 
wrapper, sometimes richly embroidered), but the 
English and French modes are universal among the 
rising generation. They form a curious contrast 
on public occasions, for, although sumptuary laws 
exist, which prevent, more especially ladies, from 
wearing jewels beyond a certain amount, and ap- 
pearing abroad attended by servants exceeding the 
number allowed for the particular rank of their hus- 
bands or fathers ; yet all classes, male and female, 



* Creolizing is an easy and elegant mode of lounging in 
a warm climate ; so called, because much in fashion among 
the ladies of the West Indies : that is, reclining back in 
one arm-chair, with their feet upon another, and sometimes 
upon the t^ble. 



TO CHINA. 191 

seem privileged to undress themselves as they 
please. 

One evening, on our passage outwards, at a 
grand ball given by the British army officers, on 
the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, at the 
Harmonie, an elderly gentleman, in a full suit of 
black, highly trimmed, and in the cut of the last 
century, was seen strutting about the room with a 
white night-cap on his head. Indeed, at dinner, 
in the best companies, they do not hesitate to wear 
their hats, if there is the least motion in the air, for 
they dread nothing so much as sitting in a cun^ent. 
The villas of the counsellors of the Indies are dis- 
tinguished by having black instead of white statues 
in their fronts, and about their gardens. They are, 
generally, heavy-looking houses, situated on the 
Jacatra and Ryswick roads, but have an air of state- 
liness. 

The restored Dutch government professes to 
act upon the principles which have been found suc- 
cessful during our possession ; but a circumstance 
which occurred a short time before our arrival here 
evinced strong symptoms of a recurrence to the 
system of terror. A body of the natives, about 
five hundred in number, having had some dispute 
with the local authorities near Indra Mayo, whilst 
making representation about some hardship (which 
they had been lately freely in the habit of doing, 
whenever they considered themselves in any way 



193 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

aggrieved), were seized, and confined in a house, 
which, like the black hole of Calcutta, being too 
small for the prisoners, they, in desperation, at- 
tempted to break through the roof; when a body of 
military having by this time been collected, they 
were fired upon, the greater part killed, and the re- 
mainder, in some way or other, destroyed. It is 
somewhat extraordinary that the Dutch, who are, 
at home, a very unassuming, plain, and moral sort 
of people, should have displayed, on so many oc- 
casions, a ferocious and blood-thirsty disposition in 
their colonies. Marshal Daendels, it is confessed, 
made many judicious arrangements by the vigour 
of his measures, had he only been a little more scru- 
pulous as to the mode of obtaining his purposes ; 
but, to use his own expression, he " found it ne- 
cessary to put himself above the usual formalities, 
and to disregard every law but that which enjoined 
the preservation of the colony intrusted to his 
management." 

On one occasion he is said to have requested the 
magistrates to demolish their grand church in Ba- 
tavia, which was not only in the way of some fa- 
vourite scheme he had in view, but its cupola was 
the only land- mark for entering the bay, and, as 
such, greatly assisted the enemy's cruizers. The 
burgomasters ventured to oppose this project. In 
a very short time the church was found to be on 
fiye ; and the building being thereby in a great de- 



TO CHINA. f9S 

gree consumed and damaged, the remainder was 
soon razed to the ground*. His great military 
road, carried some hundred miles across the island, 
cost the lives of thousands of the Javanese, who 
were sacrificed to the system of forced services. 
He appears to have been little less despotic with the 
whites ; and many stories are told about him, " that 
he could even make hens lay eggs when he thought 
proper ;" but, although all seem to agree that he 
carried a high and imperious hand, yet none dare, 
even now, speak ill of him, for fear he may return. 

In equipping a considerable army, merely from 
the resources of the country, when entirely cut off 
from any communication with Europe, supplying 
them with a cloth adapted to the climate, and fur- 
nishing them with most of the other accoutrements, 
he put the manufacturing talents of the natives to 
the test, and he succeeded. 

Sir William Keir, Mr. Feudal, and Mr. Crans- 
sen, were still at Batavia, for the purpose of finally 
adjusting the transfer of the colonies, with the 
commissioners of his majesty, the king of the 
Netherlands. The Dutch squadron was absent at 
the different islands, resuming possession of them. 
They had, as well as the land-forces, suffered a very 
heavy loss from deaths ; and the baron de Capellan, 
who is individually a man of humanity, and was 

* The incendiaries were never found out. 

% c 



194+ VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

extremely solicitous about their preservation, was 
stated to have personally interfered with the medical 
staff, who appear to have been much wedded to the 
old-fashioned practice, and to have given positive 
orders that the mode of managing the sick, which 
had proved successful with our troops on the very- 
same ground, should be adhered to. 

The ship Ccesar, captain Taylor, having been en- 
gaged to carry to England the embassy, with the 
officers and crew of the Alceste, being now ready 
for sea, her equipment having been expedited by 
the assistance of our artificers, his lordship embark- 
ed on the 12th of April, attended by sir William 
Keir, and all his staff, and receiving, from the Dutch 
authorities, every mark of respect due to his rank. 
We sailed on the same morning, and soon cleared 
the Straits of Sunda, and proceeded with a fair 
wind across the Indian Ocean. 

The gay scenes we had experienced for the last 
few weeks among our friends at Weltevreden and 
Batavia, and which we had enjoyed with the great- 
er spirit from our previous adventures, made us 
more susceptible of the dull sameness attending our 
present sky-and-water view. But a circumstance 
occurred, of all others producing the most instanta- 
neous and effectual relief from this feeling of tedium 
vita or ennui. The ship, one morning, was declar- 
ed to be on fire in the after store-room, and (to 
render the intelligence still more agreeable and in- 



TO CHINA. 495 

teresting) close to the magazine, whilst the flames 
seen in that direction, and volumes of smoke now 
bursting forth, left no doubt of the fact. In a 
moment the liveliest bustle took place of listless 
yawning, and every mind was roused into a state of 
the highest activity. To be in a ship on fire in 
the middle of the ocean is suppvosed to be the most 
awkward and unenviable situation in which a man 
of weak nerves can be placed. Some again assert 
that it affords, more than any other occasion, an 
opportunity for the display of coolness, presence of 
mind, and decision. Happily, there were not 
wanting many possessing the latter qualities, who, 
by pushing through the smoke to the point of dan- 
ger, and scuttling the decks immediately above the 
place, succeeded in extinguishing the flames in 
about three quarters of an hour, but not without 
considerable difiiculty and damage. Very fortu- 
nately it was washing morning, and, of course, 
buckets, and other water utensils, were at hand. 
Had the accident taken place during the night, or 
had it been unobserved for a few minutes longer, 
and the fire had communicated to some oil and 
other combustibles near it, no human power 
could have saved us. This alarming occurrence, 
so nearly proving fatal, was occasioned by an idle 
looby, belonging to the Caesar, carelessly pumping 
off spirits with a naked light, in order to preserve 
the body oi a parrot^ which had died the night be- 



496 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

fore. It had the effect, however, of occasioning 
the most rigorous precautions in future. 

Notwithstanding the crowded state of the Caesar, 
two passengers, of rather a singular nature, were 
put on board at Batavia, for a passage to England : 
the one, a snake of that species called Boa Con- 
strictor : the other, an Ourang Outang. — The 
former was somewhat small of his kind, being only 
about sixteen feet long, and of about eighteen 
inches in circumference ; but his stomach was ra- 
ther disproportionate to his size, as will presently 
appear. — He was a native of Borneo, and was the 
property of a gentleman (now in England), who 
had two of the same sort ; but, in their passage up 
to Batavia, one of them broke loose from his con- 
finement, and very soon cleared the decks, as every 
body very civilly made way for him. Not being 
used to a ship, however, or taking, perhaps, the sea 
for a green field, he sprawled overboard, and was 
drowned. He is said not to have sunk immediate- 
ly, but to have reared his head several times, and 
with it a considerable portion of his body, out of 
the sea. His companion, lately our shipmate, was 
brought safely on shore, and lodged in the court- 
yard of Mr. Davidson's house at Ryswick, where 
he remained for some months, waiting for an op- 
portunity of being conveyed home in some com- 
modious ship sailing directly for England, and 
where he was likely to be carefully attended to. 



TO CHINA. 197 

This opportunity offered in the Cassar, and he was 
accordingly embarked on board of that ship with 
the rest of her numerous passengers. 

During his stay at Ryswick he is said to have 
been usually entertained with a goat for dinner once 
in every three or four weeks, with occasionally a 
duck or a fowl, by way of a desert. — He was 
brought on board shut up in a wooden crib or cage, 
the bars of which were sufficiently close to prevent 
his escape ; and it had a sliding door, for the pur«. 
pose of admitting the articles on which he was to 
subsist ; the dimensions of the crib were about four 
feet high, and about five feet square ; a space suffi- 
ciently large to allow him to coil himself round with 
ease. The live stock for his use during the pas- 
sage, consisting of six goats of the ordinary size, 
were sent with him on board, five being considered 
as a fair allowance for as many months. At an 
early period of the voyage we had an exhibition of 
his talent in the way of eating, which was publicly 
performed on the quarter-deck, upon v/hich he was 
was brought. The sliding door being opened, one 
of the goats was thrust in, and the door of the cage 
shut. The poor goat, as if instantly aware of all 
the horrors of its perilous situation, immediately 
began to utter the most piercing and distressing 
cries, butting instinctively, at the same time, with 
its head towards the serpent, in self-defence. 



198 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

The snake, which at iirst appeared scarcely to 
notice the poor animal, soon began to stir a little, 
and, turning his head in the direction of the goat, 
it at length fixed a deadly and malignant eye on 
the trembling victim, whose agony and terror seem- 
ed to increase ; for, previous to the snake seizing 
its prey, it shook in every limb, but still continu- 
ing its unavailing show of attack, by butting at 
the serpent, who now became sufficiently ani- 
mated to prepare for the banquet. The first opera- 
tion was that of darting out his forked tongue, 
and at the same time rearing a little his head ; then 
suddenly seizing the goat by the fore leg with 
his mouth, and throwing him down, he was 
encircled in an instant in his horrid folds. So 
quick, indeed, and so instantaneous was the act, 
that it was impossible for the eye to follow the ra- 
pid convolution of his elongated body. It was not 
a regular screw-like turn that was formed, but re- 
sembling rather a knot, one part of the body over- 
laying the other, as if to add weight to the muscular 
pressure, the more effectually to crush his object. 
During this time he continued to grasp with his 
mouth, though it appeared an unnecessary precau- 
tion, that part of the animal which he had first seized. 
The poor goat, in the mean time, continued its 
feeble and half-stijied cries for some minutes, but 
they soon became more and more faint, and at last 



TO CHINA. 199 

it expired. The snake, however, retained it for a 
considerable time in its grasp, after it was apparently 
motionless. He then began slowly and cautious- 
ly to unfold himself, till the goat fell dead from his 
monstrous embrace, when he began to prepare 
himself for the feast. Placing his mouth in 
front of the head of the dead animal, he commen- 
ced by lubricating with his saliva that part of the 
goat ; and then taking its muzzle into his mouth, 
which had, and indeed always has, the appearance 
of a raw lacerated wound, he sucked it in, as far as 
the horns would allow. These protuberances 
opposed some little difficulty, not so much from 
their extent as from their points ; however, they 
also, in a very short time, disappeared ; that is to 
say, externally ; but their progress was still to be 
traced very distinctly on the outside, threatening 
every moment to protrude through the skin. The 
victim had now descended as far as the shoul- 
ders ; and it was an astonishing sight to observe 
the extraordinary action of the snake's muscles 
when stretched to such an unnatural extent — an ex- 
tent which must have utterly destroyed all muscu- 
lar power in any animal that was not, like itself, 
endowed with very peculiar faculties of expansion 
and action at the same time. When his head and 
neck had no other appearance than that of a serpent's 
skin stuffed almost to bursting, still the workings 
of the muscles were evident ; and his power of 



SOO VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

^suction, as it is enroneously called, unabated ; it 
was, in fact, the effect of a contractile muscular 
power, assisted by two rows of strong hooked teeth. 
With all this he must be so formed as to be able 
to suspend, for a time, his respiration, for it is im- 
possible to conceive that the process of breathing 
could be carried on while the mouth and throat 
were so completely stuffed and expanded by the 
body of the goat, and the lungs themselves (admit- 
ting the trachea to be ever so hard) compressed, as 
they must have been, by its passage downwardss 
The whole operation of completely gorging the 
goat occupied about two hours and twenty minutes : 
at the end of which time, the tumefaction was con- 
fined to the middle part of the body, or stomach, 
the superior parts, which had been so much disten- 
ded, having resumed their natural dimensions. 
He now coiled himself up again, and lay quietly 
in his usual torpid state for about three weeks or a 
month, when his last meal appearing to be com- 
pletely digested and dissolved, he was presented 
with another goat, which he devoured with equal 
facility. It would appear that almost all he swal- 
lows is converted into nutrition, for a small quantity 
of calcareous matter (and that, perhaps, not a tenth 
part of the bones of the animal) with occasionally 
some of the hairs, seemed to compose his general 
faeces ; — and this may account for these animals 
being able to remain so long without a supply of 



TO CHINA. 301 

food. He had more difficulty in killing a fowl 
than a larger animal, the former being too small for 
his grasp. 

Few of tliose who had witnessed his first exhi- 
bition were desirous of being present at the second. 
A man may be impelled by curiosity, and a wish 
to ascertain the truth of a fact frequently stated, 
but which seems almost incredible, to satisfy his 
own mind by ocular proof; but he will leave the 
scene with those feelings of horror and disgust, 
which such a sight is well calculated to create. It 
is difficult to behold, without the most painful sen- 
sation, the anxiety and trepidation of the harmless 
victim, or to observe the hideous writhing of the 
serpent around his prey, and not to imagine what 
our own case would be in the same helpless and 
dreadful situation. 

A lion, a tiger, and other beasts of prey, are 
sufficiently terrible ; but they seldom, unless strong- 
ly urged by hunger, attack human beings, and 
generally give some sort of warning ; but, against 
the silent, sly, and insiduous approach of a snake, 
there is no guarding, nor any escape when once 
entwined within his folds. 

. As we approached the Cape of Good Hope, this 
animal began to droop, as was then supposed, from 
the increasing coldness of the weather (which may 
probably have had its influence), and he refused to 
kill some fowls which were offered to him. Be- 

2D 



SOS VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

tween the Cape and St. Helena he was found dead 
in his cage ; and, on dissection, the coats of his 
stomach were discovered to be excoriated and per- 
forated by worms. Nothing remained of the goat 
except one of the horns, every other part being 
dissolved. 

It may here be mentioned, that, during a cap- 
tivity of some months at Whidah, in the kingdom 
of Dahomey, on the coast of Africa, the author of 
this narrative had opportunities of observing snakes 
more than double the size of this one just de- 
scribed ; but he cannot venture to say whether or 
not they were of the same species^ though he has 
no doubt of their being of the genus Boa. They 
killed their prey, however, precisely in a similar 
manner ; and, from their superior bulk, were capa- 
ble of swallowing animals much larger than goats 
or sheep. Governor Abson, who had for thirty- 
seven years resided at Fort William (one of the 
African company's settlements here), described 
some desperate struggles which he had either seen, 
or came to his knowledge, between the snakes and 
wild beasts, as well as the smaller cattle, in which 
the former were always victorious. A negro herds- 
man belonging to Mr. Abson (who afterwards 
limped for many years about the fort) had been 
seized by one of these monsters by the thigh ; but, 
from his situation in a wood, the serpent, in attempt- 
ing to throw itself around him, got entangled with 



TO CHINA. 203 

a tree ; and the man, being thus preserved from a 
state of compression which would have instantly 
rendered him quite powerless, had presence of 
mind enough to cut with a large knife, which he 
carried about with him, deep gashes in the neck 
and throat of his antagonist, thereby killing it, and 
disengaging himself from his alarming situation. 
He never afterwards, however, recovered the use of 
that limb, which had sustained considerable injury 
from his fangs, and the mere force of his jaws. 

These larger reptiles are seldom observed to be 
venomous, the smaller tribe being, in this respect, 
much more dangerous. 

In this country they had a smaller species of 
snake, called Daboa^ which is the object of their 
worship and adoration. It is perfectly hai'mless 
(to larger creatures), and is tameable. Great at- 
tention is paid to any that are found, being lodged 
in their temples, and fed by the priestesses with 
rats, mice, and sm^ler animals. People who are 
sick apply to it for relief; and, should one of them 
happen to entwine itself around a pregnant woman, 
it is considered the happiest possible omen for her- 
self and child. In this state she proudly marches 
through the town, sanctified, as it were, by the 
attachment of the snake, which encircles her naked 
frame ; and followed by crowds, those who meet 
her falling on their knees, and snapping their fin- 
gers (the usual salutation) as she passes. 



204? VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

The Ourang Outang, also a native of Borneo, is 
an animal remarkable not only from being extreme- 
ly rare, but as possessing, in many respects, a 
strong resemblance to man. What is technically 
denominated the cranium is perfectly human in its 
appearance ; the shape of the upper part of the 
head, the forehead, the eyes (which are dark and 
full), the eye-lashes, and, indeed, every thing re- 
lating to the eyes and ears, differing m no respect 
from man. The hair of his head, however, is mere- 
ly the same which covers his body generally. The 
nose is very fiat,^-the distance between it and the 
mouth considerable ; the chin, and, in fact, the 
whole of the lower jaw, is very large, and his teeth, 
twenty-six in number, are strong. The lower part 
of his face is what may be termed an ugly, or cari- 
cature, likeness of the human countenance. The 
position of the scapulae, or shoulder blades, the 
general form of the shoulders and breasts, as well 
as the figure of the arms, the elbow-joint especially, 
and the hands, strongly continue the resemblance. 
The metacarpal, or that part of the hand imme- 
diately above the fingers, is somewhat elongated ; 
and, by the thumb being thrown a little higher up, 
nature seems to have adapted the hand to his mode 
of life, and given him the power of grasping more 
effectually the branches of trees. 

He is corpulent about the abdomen, or, in com- 
mon phrase, rather pot-belliedy looking like one of 



TO CHINA. S05 

those figures of Bacchus often seen riding on 
casks ; but whether this is his natural appearance 
when wild, or acquired since his introduction into 
new society, and by indulging in a high style of 
living, it is difficult to determine. 

His thighs and legs are short and bandy, the 
ankle and heel like the human ; but the fore part of 
the foot is composed of toes, as long and as pliable 
as his fingers, with a thumb a little situated before 
the inkier ankle ; thi& conformation enabling him 
to hold equally fast with his feet as with his hands. 
When he stands erect he is about three feet high, 
and he can walk, when led, like a child ; but his 
natural locomotion, when on a plane surface, is 
supporting himself along, at every step, by placing 
the knuckles of his hands upon the ground. All 
the fingers, both of the hands and feet, have nails 
exactly like the human race, except the thumb of 
the foot, which is without any. 

His natural food would appear to be all kinds of 
fruit and nuts ; but he eats biscuit, or any other 
sort of bread, and sometimes animal food. He will 
drink grog, or even spirits, if given to him ; and 
has been known repeatedly to help himself in this 
way : he was also taught to sip his tea or cofiee, 
and since his arrival in England, has discovered a 
taste for a pot of porter. His usual conduct is not 
mischievous, and chattering like that of monkeys 
, in general ; but he has rather a grave and sedate 



306 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

character, and is much inclined to be social, and 
on good terms, with every body. He made no 
difficulty, however, when cold, or inclined to sleep, 
in supplying himself with ajiy jacket he found 
hanging about, or in stealing a pillow from a ham- 
mock, in order to lie more soft and comfortably. 

Sometimes, when teased by shewing him some- 
thing to eat, he would display in a very strong 
manner the human passions, following the person 
whining and crying, throwing himself oiF on his 
back, and rolling about apparently in a great rage, 
attempting to bite those near him, and frequently 
lowering himself by a rope over the ship's side, as 
if pretending to drown himself; but, when he came 
near the water's edge, he always reconsidered the 
matter, and came on board again. He would often 
rifle and examine the pockets of his friends in quest 
of nuts and biscuits, which they sometimes carried 
for him. He had a great antipathy to the smaller 
tribe of monkeys, and would throw them over- 
board if he could ; but in his general habits and 
disposition there is much docility and good nature, 
and, when not annoyed, he is extremely inoffensive. 
He approaches, upon the whole, nearer to the 
human kind than any other animal. 

On the 27th May we anchored in Simon's Bay, 
at the Cape of Good Hope, from which we sailed 
again on the 11th of June, steering for St. Helena, 
where we arrived on the 27th. The exterior of 



TO CHINA. 207 

this island has much of that appearance which in- 
duced madame Bertrand to term it the birth-place 
of the demon of Ennui ; but the interior is not 
destitute of beauties, for there are many very pleas- 
ing spots situated in its different valleys. 

One cannot help, in contemplating the calm 
tranquillity which reigns about Longwood (now 
the peaceful habitation of the greatest agitator of 
the world), being forcibly struck by the great mu- 
tability of human affairs. 

Bonaparte had for a considerable time past been 
very retired and difficult of access, but he was per- 
fectly disposed to see lord Amherst ; and on the 
day previous to our departure his lordship rode out 
there, accompanied by the gentlemen of his suite. 
He was introduced by Bertrand with not a litde 
form, and had, as well as Mr. Ellis, a very long 
private conversation previous to the introduction of 
the other gentlemen, who in the mean time were 
attended by generals Bertrand, Montholon, and 
Gourgaud, in the next room. At last they also were 
ushered in ; and a ring having been formed l^y the 
marshal round the principal personage of the group. 
Lord Amherst presented to him first captain Max- 
well, to whom he bowed very civilly, and said his 
name was not unknown to him ; observing, he had 
commanded on an occasion where one of his fri- 
gates. La Pomone, was taken in the Mediterra- 
nean. " Vous etiez tres mediant — Eh bien ! your 



208 VOYAGE OF H. M. S. ALCESTE 

government must not blame you for the loss o( 
the Alceste, for you have taken one of my frigates," 
He said he was very happy to see young Jeffery 
Amherst, and good-hum ouredly asked him what 
presents he had brought with him from China, and 
so forth. 

The author of this narrative he interrogated about 
the length of time he had served, and whether he 
had been wounded ; repeating the last question in 
English. 

Proceeding next to Mr. Abel (who was'introdu- 
ced as naturalist), he inquired if he belonged to the 
royal society, or any of the public institutions, or 
was a candidate for that honour ; asking if he had 
been happy, in this voyage, in making any discove- 
ries in natural history, which could add to our 
stock of knowledge on that subject. Whether he 
knew Sir Joseph Banks, whose name, he said, was 
a passport in France ; and his wishes always attended 
to, even during war. 

Mr. Cooke's name induced him to ask if he was 
a descendant of the celebrated navigator ; observing, 
" You had a Cooke, who was, indeed, a great man." 
He requested to know, on Dr. Lynn being present- 
ed, at what university he had studied. — " At Edin- 
burgh" was the reply. — " Edinboorg !" he repeat- 
ed ; and went on to interrogate him whether he was 
a Brunonian in practice ; or if he bled and gave as 
much mercury as our St. Helena doctors. 



TO CHINA. 209 

Mr. Griffith, the chaplain, was next introduced, 
whom Buonaparte termed Patimo)iiery and pro- 
nouncing, also, in English, clair-gee-maji. " Well, 
sir," he continued, " have you found out what reli- 
gion the Chinese profess ?" Mr. G. replied it was 
somewhat difficult to say; but it seemed a sort of 
polytheism. Not appearing to understand the 
meaning of this word, spoken in English, Bertrand 
remarked " Pluralitc de Dieiix.'''' — " Ah ! pluralite 
de Dieux^'^'' said he ; " do they believe in the im- 
mortality of the soul ?" " I think they have some 
idea of a future state," was the repl). "Well," 
said Buonaparte, " when you go home you must 
get a good living ; I wish you may be made a pre- 
bendary, sir.'* Proceeding to Mr. Hayne, he also 
questioned him in some general way ; and having 
now completed the circle, and said something to 
every body, he very courteously bowed to each 
of the party as they retired, who all felt much gra- 
tified at the opportunity of the interview. Al- 
though there was nothing descending in his manner, 
yet it was affable and polite ; and, whatever may be 
his general habit, he can behave himself very 
prettily if he pleases. He is by no means so cor- 
pulent as is usually represented, and his health ap- 
pears to be excellent. Longwood, from its situa- 
tion, ought certainly to be highly salubrious. On 
the 2d of July we sailed from St. Helena, touched 
at the island of Ascension on the 7th, and, on 

2E 



210 Voyage of h. m. s. alceste. 

the 12th, crossed the line, and got into our own 
hemisphere. Our passage homewards was ex- 
tremely favourable, on the 16th of August making 
the land, and the next morning brought us to Spit- 
head, from whence we landed once more in our 
native isle ; not merely with the common feeling 
of happiness which all mankind naturally enjoy on 
revisiting the land of their birth, but with those 
sensations of pride and satisfaction with which every 
Briton may look round him, in his o\vn country, 
after having seen all others. 



END OF THE NARKATIVE, 



APPENDIX. 



NO. I. 

ON our arrival at Portsmouth, a court martial (as is 
Usual in the navy) was held on board the Queen Char- 
lotte, to inquire into all the circumstances attending the 
loss of the ship, and into the conduct of the officers and 
men on that occasion ; composed of captain sir Archi- 
bald Dickson, bart- president ; captains Alexander, Dacres, 
Meynell, and Hickey ; Moses Greatham, judge advocate ; 
when, after Captain Maxwell's interesting narrative, detail- 
ing the facts relative thereto, having been read, and a num- 
ber of witnesses examined on the various statements con- 
tained in it, the court pronounced the following sentence^ 
after the usual preamble : — 

" Having maturely and deliberately weighed and consi- 
dered the whole, the court is of opinion, that the loss of 
his majesty's late ship Alceste was caused by her striking 
on a sunken rock, until then unknown in the straits of 
Caspar. That captain Murray Maxwell, previous to the 
circumstance, appeared to have conducted himself in the 



SIS APPENDIX. 

most zealous and officer-like manner ; and, after the ship 
struck, his coolness, self-collection, and exertions, were 
highly conspicuous ; and that eveiy thing was done by him 
and his officers, wiihjn the power of man to execute, pre- 
vious to the loss of the ship, and afterwards to preserve the 
lives of the right honourable lord Amherst, his majesty's 
embassador, and his suite, as well as those of the ship's 
company, and to save her stores on that occasion ; and there- 
fore adjudge the said captain Murray Maxwell, his officers 
and men, to be most fully acquitted." 

The vcourt was very crowded, and there were present 
lords Amherst and Colchester. The former, being examin- 
ed by the court, stated, " that he had selected captain Max- 
well, on the occasion of the embassy, from motives of per- 
sonal friendship, as well as from the high opinion he enter- 
tained of his professional character, M'hich opinion had been 
much increased by the events of this voyage," 



APPENDIX. S13 



NO. II. 



r- 



CHRONOLOGICAL LIST of the Kings of 
Lewchew.from the End of the Twelfth Century y 
to the Beginning of last. 

First Year of Duration of 

their Reign. Lived. Reign. 

NAMES OF KINGS. 

A. D. Years. Years. 

Chun-tien 1187 72 51 

Chun-Machuny, son of Chun-tien . 1238 64 11 

Ypen, son of Chun-Machuny 1249 — — 

Yn-tsou 1260 71 40 

Ta-tching, son of Yn-tsoir 1301 — 9 

Yn-tse, second son of Ta-lching . . . 1309 — 5 

Yu-tching, fourth son of Yn-tse . . 1314 — 23 

Ly-Oucy, son of Yu-tching 1337 23 14 

Tsay-tou 1350 — 46 

Ou-ning, son of Tsay-tou 1396 — — 

Tse-chao, son of Ou-ning 1406 — 16 

Chang-pa-tchi, son of Tse-chfio . . . 1424 68 18 
Chang-tchong, second son of 

Chang-pa-tchi • . 1440 54 — 

Chang-tse-ta, son of Chang-tchong 1445 42 5 
Chang-kin-foo, paternal uncle of 

Chang-tse-ta 1450 52 4 

Chang-tai-kieou, brother of Chang- 
kin-foo 1454 46 7 



S14 APPENDIX, 

First Year of Duration of 

their Reign. Lived. Reign. 

NAMES OF KINGS. — 

A. D. Years, Years. 

Chang-te, third son of Chang- 

ta-kieou 1461 29 9 

Chang-y-ven i 1470 62 7 

Chang-tching, son of Chang-y-ven . 1477 62 50 
Chang-tsing, third son of Chang- 
tching 1527 59 29 

Ghang-y-ven, second son of Chang- 
tsing 1556 45 17 

Chang-yong, second son of Chang- 
y-ven 1573 35 is 

Chang-ning, grandson of Chang- 
tsing .. . 1588 57 32 

Chang-fong, descendant of a brother 

of Chang-yong 1 62 1 51 20 

Chang-hien, third son of Chang-fong 1641 23 7 
Chang-tche, brother of Chang-hien 1 648 40 2 1 
Chang-tching, son of Chang-hien . 1669 65 41 
Chang-pen, grandson of Chang- 
tching 1710 34 3 

Chang-king, son of Chang-pen .... 1713 — — . 

The above list being copied, by pere Gaubil, from the 
Chinese Report of Supoa-Koang, they have, in that transla- 
tion from the ox'iginal language, no doubt, acquired their 
present Chinese character of expression. 



APPENDIX. 



Sid 



NO. III. 



NAMES and SITUATION of the Lewchew 
Islands, according to the same authority. 



To the JVorth-eastward. 



To the JVorth and Westward. 



Yon-chang-pou 


Gan-kini-chan 


Fokou 


Kichan 


Yeoula 


Ye-Kichan 


Oa-kinou 


Lun-koan-chan (or Sulphur 


Kia-ki-luma 


Island) 


Tatao (of considerable size) 


Mat-che-chan, surrounded 


Ki-ki-ai 


by five islets 


To the South and Westward. 


Another Mat-che-chan 
Koumi-chan 


Typin-chan, or INIa-kou-chan 




Ykima 
Yleang-pa 


To the Eastward, 


Koulima 


Kon-ta-tia 


Talama 


Tsin-kinou 


Mienna 


Ysi 


Oukomi 


Pama 


Pat-chong-chan 




Palouma 




Yeouni Kpumi 


The whole situate at va- 


Kaumi 


rious distances, extending 


Te-ke-tou-non 


from the main island towards 


Kauli-che-ma 


Japan, Corea, and the island 


Ola-ke-se-kou 


of Formosa, four only lying 


Pa-tou-li-ma 


to the eastward. 



S16 



APPENDIX. 



NO. IV. 

J/jS. fisher collected a few of the Lewchewan 
wordsi which may tend to give some idea of the 
sound of their language. 



Beard. 


Figoo. 


Button. 


Tama. 


Book. 


Shumutsee. 


Bite. 


Qtiayon. 


Boat with sails. 


Tima. 


Boat rowed with oars. 


Chunee. 


Branches of trees. 


Tanun. 


Comb. 


Sabachee. 


Chair. 


Ee. 


Cows. 


Ooshu. 


Cold. 


Fuisa. 


Cut. 


Chichau. 


Candle. 


Doe. 


Coffin. 


Quan. 


Come ashore. 


Chung. 


Cloth. 


Dasha.. 


Colours (ensign). 


Chuata. 


Coral. 


Ooru. 


Come here. 


Cuma cay-chung, 


Day. 


Okiou. 


Drink. 


Nummee. 


Dead. 


Sijoug. 



APPENDIX. 



217 



Eye. 

Egg. 

Earth. 

Eat. 

Fingers. 

Feet. 

Fowls. 

Fan. 

Fan-ning. 

Fish-ing. 

Goat. 

Good. 

Grave (for dead). 

Good bye, or adieu. 

God. 

Gong. 

Hair. 

Hat. 

He. 

Handkerchief. 

Horse. 

Head-pin with a star-head. 

Head -pin with a scoop-head. 

How do you do ? 

Ink. 

Jar. 

I or me. 

I will come again. 

I do not understand. 

I thank you. 

I will go. 

I will sing. 

Knife. 

2 



Me. 

Cooga. 

Sinna. 

Conun. K-cuT^euA^ 

Ibec. "^tt4t. 

Fisha. n- ^<^ 

Fuee. 

Ogee. o^g^u^ -Ccfi 

Ogee-shun. 

Juh-shun. 

Figa. 

Yutissa. *r tf '- 4> A t\ii 

Hacka. <\oM..tK^ 

Wa-coutee. 

Joh. ^^t^ 

Caniutchung, 

Carasee. 

Camuree. 

Adee. t»At- 

Sagee. 

Mah. {A/r>it3L. 

Cameaashee. 

Usisashee. 

Uga-ma-bidda ? 

Tamagufing. 

Tusaadzee. 

Oau 

Atucara. 

Chi-carang. 

Ca-fush. 

Oa Atchung. 

Oa Utshang. 

Sigu. 

F 



M^ 


APPENDIX. 


Large. 


Ufishta. 


Moon. 


Stee. 


Musquito. 


Gadjang. 


Milk. 


Chee. 


Man. 


Ekegah. 


Nose. 


Hana. 


Nails. 


Cimee. 


Night. 


Masta. 


Not good. 


Wassa. 


No. 


Arang. 


Oil. 


Unda. 


Paper. 


Cabee. 


Potatoes (sweet). 


Moo. 


Physician or Surgeon. 


, Isha. 


Priest. 


Bozy. 


Pig. 


Oa. 


Rain. 


Amuie. 


Riding. 


Ditaugin. 


Sun. 


Tida. 


Stars. 


Hushee. 


Shoes. 


Saba. 


Stones. 


Ishee. 


Sit down. 


Iree. 


Ship (large). 


Ufubuny. 


Ship (small). 


Cubunee. 


Sleep. 


Ninjun. 


Sick. 


Yadon. 


Sailor. 


Biotee. 


Shell. 


Keh. 


Silk. 


Dunsy. 


Stone-mason. 


Ichi-secu. 


Square used by ditto,. 


Banjoganee 


Serpent. 


Onegha. 



t 



APPENDIX. 



919 



Sea. 

Sand. 

Sash or Girdle, worn hy the 

Lewchewans. 
Stop. 
Small. 
Teeth. 
Trowsers. 
Trees. 

Tobacco-pipe. 
To bring. 
Tea. 
Temple, or house of worship 

in the garden, where the 

sick were. 
Umbrella. 
Very good. 
Water. 
Wind. 
Wood. 
Woman. 
You. 

You give me. 
Yes. 
You are a good fellow. 



Ooshu. 
Sinna. 

Ubu. 

Ichuna. 

Coosa. 

Ha. 

Jacama. 

Ifcoojee. 

Tsidee. 

Toute-coo. 

Cha (Chinese.) 



Jah Joh. 
Cassa. ' — 
Churissa. 
Midzee, 
Casechute. 

Kee. 

Inago. 

Ya. 

Tare Curran. 

Simung. 

Churamung. 



Ce^^ 



^ 



APPENDIX. 



NUMERALS. 



1 Titsee. flii^ S m_ 
1 Tatsee, f t*X»,U^ 

3 Metsee. ^vu^ii*- 

4 Yutsee. V^i-tvK. 

5 Ititsee. ^ *^ **- 

6 Mutsee. 4'HA*t4t*' 

7 Nanatsee. 

8 Jatsee, 

9 Cucunutsee. 

10 Too. 

1 1 Too-Titsee. ^ ^*- 

12 Too-Tatsee, and so on to 
nineteen. |-^*^vu. 

20 Nijoo. 

21 Nijoo-Titsee, &c. 



30 Sanjoo. 

31 Sanjoo-Titsee, &c. 

40 Sinjoo. 

41 Sinjoo-Titsee, &c. 

50 Gunjoo. 

51 Gunjoo-Titsee, &c. 

60 Docodoo. 

61 Ducodoo-Titsee, &c. 

70 Stigoo. 

71 Stigoo-Titsee, &c. 

80 Hacheegoo. 

81 Hachegoo-Titsee, &c. 

90 Cunjoo. 

91 Cunjoo-Titsee, &c. 
100 Hiacoo. ' 



t 



The numbers after each ten were always repeated in a 
manner similar to our own arithmetic. 



APPENDIX. 231 



No. V. 



THE FAREWELL. 



[^The insertion ofthefollonving -verses., by Mr. Gillard, clerk 
of the Lyra, may not, fierhaps, be deemed irrelevant to the 
subject, as they express not only his own, but the general 
sentiments, on leaving the worthy Islanders at Grand 
Lewchew.^ 



THE sails are set,— the anchor weigh'd ; 

Their course, south-west, the ships pursue ; 
And, friendly signs at parting made. 

We bid the land a last adieu ! 

From crowded boats, that grace our wake. 
In cap and vest but seldom wore. 

Their last " Farewell" the natives take, 
And, half-reluctant, seek the shore. 



/ 



Each cliff's rude height and sea-worn base 
Presents a silent gazing throng ; 

Where e'en regret may find a place, 
As swift the vessels pass along. 



^^ APPENDIX. 

And now the harbour's far astern ; 

The dang'rous reefs in distance fade ; — 
No object can the eye discern 

Without the glass's friendly aid. 

Yet, while the anxious straining sight 
Can still behold the fleeting shore, 

The telescope shall yield delight. 
And all its pleasing scenes restore. 

Again the rocks and tombs appear, 
The trees and straw -built huts arise. 

Where constant guards were plac'd, by fear^ 
To screen each beauty from our eyes. 

The path beside the wat'ring-place, 
Where branching pines adorn the hill, 

Th' assisted eye can faintly trace, 
And mark its numerous windings still. 

There, too, the stone enclosure stands, 
Within whose high extensive walls 

.The pagan native lifts his hands, 
And on his wooden idol calls. 

Yet ye, who boast the Christian name. 
Blush at a deed which truth must tell :— 

Hither they brought the skk and lame. 
And bade them in their temples dwell. 

Prom noise and crowded decks remov'd, 
Th' infirm inhal'd a purer air ; 

And native kindness daily prov'd 
They bless the hand that led them there. 



APPENDIX, SS3 

In yonder grove's encircling shade, 
Where time will long the truth attest, 

The last sad rites by strangers paid, 
A youthful seaman's ashes rest. 

What tho* oblivion o'er his name 

May spread her veil of deepest gloom, 

Full many a fa v 'rite child of fame 
Would not disdain an equal tomb. 

Yet not the sick their thoughts confin'd, 

Nor yet th' interment of the dead ; 
The living still they bore in mind, 

And gave the ships their daily bread. 

While friendship thus was shewn to all, 

Congenial minds attach'd a few ; 
And mem'ry oft will, pleas'd, recall 

The names of « Mad'ra," and « Geroo." 

Farewell, dear isle ! — on you may breath 

Of civil discord never blow I 
Far from your shores be plague and death. 

And far — oh ! far — the hostile foe ! 

To distant climes our course we steer. 
Where fashion boasts her splendid reign ; 

Where science, fame, and wealth, appear, 
While lux'ry revels in their train. 

Meanwhile, ne'er 'mid your smiling scenes 
May pride and fierce ambition spring I 

Ne'er may they know what mis'ry means. 
Which vice and dissipation bring ! 



224} APPENDIX. 

Still on your sons may plenty shine; 

Still may their happiness increase ; 
And friendship long their hearts entwine 

With love, with innocence, and peace. 

No more ; — for now the fresh 'ning breeze 

Impels us swiftly o'er the deep ; 
Your verdant shores no longer please, 

And faint appear your mountains steep. 

Their summits now are cloth'd in gray, 
And scarce the eye their place can tell ; 

And now they're melted quite away, — 
Once more, dear island, Fare thee well I 



) 



THE END. 



,-v 






^,^' ;^4<vM/?5, 



v\V '^>- 












.0 N <5 ^ \'^ 



,.^^ 



g>' 






-^^. 



.V"^^ ^\.-,^ 







■^ .; o*' v.'^ 






^ <^^' -^. 






p. 









o>- 



\^' ''""<'. 






'":. ,A^ 



vXV -^^ 









,0 o^ 






\'^ ^^ 



A^^ -^' 






'<^. A^ 



*, 

':'^ 









.^^ -% 






...^ 



-/- " N 



■'^>- ,,XN 









N^^ ''^. 



J- V 



^ Deacidified using the Bookkeeper procesi 

is' '-^ Mi\ Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
;^a Treatment Date: March 2003 



^"'^' '.^ PreservationTechnologies 

O '' 4- A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 



-^'-v"^ 



'p. 



1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 






■■6° 



"-^^ 4 



'^C- 



oN V^ 



.•*> 



^\^ 






^0^ 

0^ %• 



■<• V, 



-^^ c^'- 



o 












-^. t"^' 



